By Ainur Rohmah
JAKARTA
Indonesia has begun arrangements to transfer two Australians to their place of execution, local media reported Thursday.
Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, the leaders of the "Bali Nine" drug smuggling gang, will be flown to Yogyakarta by Garuda Indonesia airlines before being driven to Nusa Kambangan, a prison island off the southern coast of Java where five drug convicts were executed last month.
The men, who have been at the center of high-level efforts to have their sentences revoked after 10 years on death row, are still being held at Kerobokan prison on Bali.
However, Denpasar High Court has arranged them to be removed for execution by firing squad.
Chief Prosecutor Momock Bambang Samiarso said the court had begun coordinating with Garuda, airport officials and the National Narcotics Agency on Thursday after receiving authorization from Ministry of Justice and Human Rights.
"We received the letter on Feb. 11, so the officer in Bali held a coordination meeting on the time of removal," he told news website Kompas.
The executions have not been scheduled yet but neither have they been delayed, the prosecutor said, adding that the men would be removed from Kerobokan under police and army escort "as soon as possible."
Attorney General Muhammad Prasetyo previously said he would give three days notice before the executions are carried out.
Last month, the authorities on Bali insisted the executions were not conducted on the island, a popular tourist destination, particularly among Australians.
Chan, 31, and 33-year-old Sukumaran, are due to face a firing squad before the end of February.
The pair, from Sydney, led a gang that attempted to smuggle 8.3 kilograms (18 pounds) of heroin valued at $3.2 million from Indonesia to Australia in April 2005. The other seven gang members were sentenced to life terms.
Their looming executions have seen Australian government ministers, lawmakers and human rights groups call for a reprieve. Indonesia President Joko Widodo has refused clemency for drug offenders facing the death sentence.
Last month, six convicts, including five foreigners, were executed despite diplomatic appeals from Brazil and the Netherlands, resulting in them withdrawing their ambassadors to Jakarta.
Indonesia has said 20 executions are scheduled for this year.
Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi told lawmakers Thursday that the death sentences were not calculated to antagonize Australia but part of Indonesia’s war on drugs, news website Detik reported.
Referring to her Australian counterpart, she said: "I have been in touch with Julie Bishop twice a day… I told her about Indonesia policy. [This] is not a case against another country but against crime."
On Wednesday, President Joko Widodo sought Muslim backing for his refusal to grant pardons for drug offenders, Antara news agency reported. "We wish all Muslims will support this," he told the Congress of Indonesian Muslims in Yogyakarta.
The Indonesia Ulema Council and the country’s two biggest Muslim groups have previously supported the death sentence.
