Families of death row inmates,fearing worst, head to Indonesia

JAKARTA: Relatives and diplomats rushed to an Indonesian prison island on Friday ahead of the looming executions of nine foreign drug convicts who are set to be shot in defiance of international anger.
Indonesia advised consular officials to go to Nusakambangan, the high-security prison island where its executions are carried out, and where all of the death row convicts are now congregated.
The foreigners — two from Australia, one each from Brazil, France 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.
Widodo has turned a deaf ear to increasingly clamorous appeals on the convicts’ behalf from their governments, from social media and from others such as Anggun, one of Indonesia’s most famous singers.
France has accused Indonesia of “serious dysfunction” in its legal system that led to Frenchman Serge Atlaoui being sentenced to death, and said his execution would be “incomprehensible”.
Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop tried calling her Indonesian opposite number on Friday, but he was too busy to take her call, her department said, adding that it was “gravely concerned” at developments.
Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipino maid whose two sons aged 12 and six have come to spend her final hours with her, was transferred on Friday morning under heavy police guard to Nusakambangan, sparking protests in Manila.
#MaryJane was trending strongly on Twitter in Indonesia, as was #SaveMaryJaneVeloso in the Philippines, in support of a woman who says a friend stashed heroin in her suitcase without her knowledge.
“We’ve learned that she’s been moved but I still believe God will give us a miracle, As long as she’s still alive, we will never lose hope,” Veloso’s mother, Celia, said on Philippine TV station ANC.
Indonesia’s Human Rights Commission released a letter from Veloso, written by hand in the Bahasa Indonesia language to Widodo, in which she pleads for mercy for the sake of her young children.
Jakarta said an exact date for the executions could not be decided yet, as a judicial review was still pending for the sole Indonesian in the group of 10 people who face death by firing squad.
A spokesman for Indonesia’s Supreme Court told AFP a ruling on that case could be made as early as Monday, paving the way for the executions to proceed.
“We hope that the decision will be made as soon as possible so that we will have a chance to determine the D-Day of the executions,” Tony Spontana, spokesman for Indonesia’s attorney-general, told reporters.
“The theme of the impending executions is a war against drugs,” he stressed, while indicating that more than the legally required minimum notice period of 72 hours might be given to the foreign embassies.