Paramilitary police in dry run for execution transfer

PARAMILITARY police in Bali have conducted a “finetuning” ­exercise for moving Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran to their place of execution.

Paramilitary police practise the prisoner transfer in Bali. Picture: Lukman Bintoro

PARAMILITARY police in Bali have conducted a “finetuning” ­exercise for moving Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran off the island to their place of execution.

But the condemned Australians and their families last night still had received no notification of the transfer.

Using two members as stand-ins, 22 mobile brigade (Brimob) police, armed with automatic weapons and wearing balaclavas, yesterday practised collecting the men from their cells at Kerobokan jail in Bali and transporting them by armoured personnel carriers to the military airport adjoining Ngurah Rai international airport.

Chan and Sukumaran are ­expected to be flown in an Indonesian Air Force transport plane to Cilacap, Central Java.

MAP: Global death sentences and executions

There they are to be transferred by helicopter the short distance to Nusakambangan penal island, where the executions of 10 drug convicts are to happen.

The timing of the executions has yet to be made public, but it ­appears the Australians will not face a firing squad before next week.

Most members of the Chan and Sukumaran families, who have been visiting Kerobokan ­almost daily for a month, remained in Bali yesterday.

President Joko Widodo, who has refused the 10 prisoners clemency, yesterday made no comment on his Wednesday night conversation with Tony Abbott, who again asked for mercy for Chan, 31, and Sukumaran, 33. Following their phone talk, the Australian Prime Minister said: “I think he is carefully considering Indonesia’s position.”

Besides the two Australians, the death list is believed to include a Philippines woman, an Indonesian, two Nigerians, a French citizen, a Brazilian and a Ghanaian. Another Nigerian drug convict recently was refused clemency.

The governments of Australia, France and Brazil appealed again for presidential mercy this week. However, there was no sign yesterday of a change in course towards halting the executions.

Modifications for holding the 10 prisoners in isolation at the Batu high-security facility on ­Nusakambanang were to be finished today.

The condemned prisoners are expected to be held at Batu for at least 72 hours.

Yesterday’s transfer exercise was at Brimob’s Bali headquarters in Denpasar, where unit commander Rudy Harianto told reporters it was aimed at finetuning details. “We’re ready,” Colonel Harianto said. “Anytime, we’re ready to move for security duty.” 

Additional reporting: Deborah Cassrels