CILACAP, INDONESIA — Families of foreign drug convicts due to be executed in Indonesia issued desperate mercy pleas on Saturday as the prisoners' final hours ticked away.
Indonesian authorities gave nine of the 10 convicts 72 hours' notice of their fates on Saturday. At least one of them is expected to face the firing squad on Tuesday.
The 72 hours' notice does not necessarily mean that all the executions will be carried out within 72 hours, said Tony Spontana, a spokesman for the attorney-general's department.
The 10th condemned prisoner, French national Serge Atlaoui, was given a temporary reprieve, the French Embassy said. The reason for the postponement was not immediately clear but Atlaoui's lawyer said he believed it was linked to a legal issue that had not been resolved.
French President Francois Hollande on Saturday warned of "consequences with France and Europe" for Indonesia if Atlaoui was executed.
Consular officials and relatives began arriving on Saturday in the port town near Nusakambangan, the high-security prison island where executions are carried out, and where all of the death row convicts are now held.
The exact schedule for the executions is not known but the lawyer for one of the condemned, Mary Jane Veloso of the Philippines, said she would face the firing squad on Tuesday.
"We were informed by Mary Jane herself that she received the notice that the sentence will be implemented on April 28," Minnie Lopez told AFP on Saturday afternoon.
The nine foreigners — two from Australia, one each from Brazil, and the Philippines, and four from Africa — have all lost appeals for clemency from President Joko Widodo, who argues that Indonesia is fighting a drugs emergency.
Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop on Saturday urged a "change of heart" from Widodo.
The dpa news agency quoted a foreign diplomat as saying the executions were expected to happen on Wednesday.
Widodo has turned a deaf ear to all appeals on the convicts' behalf from their governments.
Veloso's family arrived on Saturday at Cilacap, the West Java town that serves as the gateway to Nusakambangan.
"If anything bad happens to my daughter, I will hold many people accountable. They owe us my daughter's life," Veloso's 55-year-old mother, Celia, told a Philippine radio station.
"I hope my appeal reaches President Widodo."
Meanwhile the sister of Australian drug trafficker Myuran Sukumaran issued an emotional plea for his life to be spared, appearing in a YouTube video clutching a photograph of her brother as a young boy wearing a school uniform.
"My brother made a mistake 10 years ago and he's paid for this mistake every single day since then," Brintha Sukumaran said.
"From the bottom of my heart, please President Widodo have mercy on my brother. ... Change the punishment for humanity."
The family members of Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, the other Australian facing imminent execution, were also en route to Cilacap. The pair, sentenced to death in 2006, are the ringleaders of the so-called "Bali Nine" heroin-smuggling gang.
Chan and Sukumaran were formally given their 72 hours' notice on Saturday.
Three of the African traffickers are confirmed as being from Nigeria. However it is not clear whether the fourth holds Ghanaian or Nigerian nationality.
Indonesia's Supreme Court is expected to issue a final ruling on Monday on the last remaining appeal, filed by the lone Indonesian among the current group of condemned prisoners. If the appeal is rejected it would pave the way for all the executions to proceed.
Phelim Kine, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, described capital punishment as "unacceptable state brutality".
"Widodo should promote Indonesia as a rights-respecting democracy by joining the countries that have abolished capital punishment."