Indonesia to Execute Bali Nine Ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran Before End of February

Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran will be executed in Indonesia this month. The Indonesian foreign ministry has confirmed that the Australian drug smugglers, known to be the ringleaders of the Bali Nine group, are among the prisoners facing the firing squad.

The ministry spokesman Armanatha Nasir told ABC News on Friday that it has received notification from the Bali prosecutors about the two Australians’ execution date. The Australian embassy has been informed the night before that Chan and Sukumaran will face the firing squad in February.

The attorney-general’s office, however, has yet to announce a date. Attorney-General HM Prasetyo will decide the date and venue of the execution. He suggested that he was holding off the details so another death row inmate, Nigerian Silvester Obiekwe, could be included in the batch. Reports suggest that Chan and Sukumaran would be killed by firing squad in Nusakambangan, a prison island off central Java.

Upon receiving the news that their application for a judicial review, called PK, was rejected, the Australians sent the Indonesian government a handwritten letter asking to be spared their lives. The PK would have been their last ditch attempt in escaping the death sentence after Indonesian President Joko Widodo rejected their bid for clemency in January. According to a spokesman for Denpasar court, their application was denied and therefore would not be submitted to the Supreme Court for assessment because there was no new evidence in their case.

Chan and Sukumaran’s letter, hastily scrawled in a piece of lined paper, begs the government to reconsider their fate, saying that they would serve the Indonesian community if they would be saved from the death penalty.

“To Government of Indonesia, We beg for moratorium, so we can have chance to serve to Indonesian community and bring more benefit on the rehabilative program in prison,” the letter reads. “We believe in the Indonesian legal system that bring justice and humanity.” (sic)