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wo Australian drug smugglers on death row, Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, prayed for the six drug convicts shot by firing squad on Sunday, feeling particularly deeply as they too could soon face the same fate.

'€œWe prayed for them. May God bless them,'€ Matius Arif, an evangelist from Abbalove Church, said after visiting members of the Bali Nine at Kerobokan Penitentiary on Monday.

Matius said that his visit to Sukumaran and Chan was to talk about the rehabilitation programs conducted at the prison, which the two had initiated and set up. During the conversation, he said, they had not discussed the execution. '€œWe didn'€™t talk about that. But we prayed for them,'€ he said.

Sukumaran, 33, and Chan, 31, are among what were 64 drug convicts on death row in Indonesia; six were executed early Sunday morning. The pair has been detained at Kerobokan Penitentiary for almost 10 years.

They are two of nine Australians convicted for an attempt to smuggle about 8 kilograms of heroin from Bali to Australia in 2005. Besides Chan and Myuran, one other of the group known collectively as the Bali Nine, Scott Anthony Rush, was initially sentenced to death. However, Rush was granted clemency and is now serving a life sentence in Karangasem Penitentiary in eastern Bali. Five other members of the drug syndicate '€” Martin Stephens, Matthew Norman, Michael Czugaj, Si Yi Chen and Tan Duc Than Nguyen '€” are also serving life sentences. One other Bali Nine member, Renae Lawrence, is serving a 20-year sentence.

Sukumaran is now among those on the list ready to be executed after he lost his bid for clemency with the signing of a presidential decree by President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo rejecting his appeal. The letter was signed on Dec. 30. Andrew Chan, however, has yet to receive a response to his request for clemency.

Attorney General HM Prasetyo said on Jan. 15 that Sukumaran'€™s execution would await the response to Chan'€™s clemency bid. If Chan'€™s clemency is rejected, they will be executed together as they as they were sentenced together.

Matius Arif, an active supporter of the many programs set up by the pair in Kerobokan prison, said they deserved to stay alive. He sent a message to the President saying: '€œTo the President of Indonesia, this is a matter of life. Both of them have been doing a great job inside prison. They have helped many people a lot. And they have transformed many lives in prison. So I think they deserve to live longer. I know that justice has to stand, but if you can give a life, they are more worthy alive inside prison.'€

Sukumaran and Chan have set up many workshops in the prison for more than seven years. '€œThey have done a great job inside the prison. Chan has a prison ministry helping many people, he has a bible class and teaches cooking. Myuran has a painting class, which continues even now he has lost his clemency bid. They are still doing a great job to help people rehabilitate themselves in prison,'€ he said.

All the programs, he said, were aimed to help people free themselves from addiction and help people have a new life. '€œThey realized that they were wrong. Every hero has their own dark side. I think their repentance is not only physical but also spiritual. I believe that what both of them have done is beneficial. Letting them live is much more beneficial than killing them,'€ Matius said.

An ex-prisoner who was serving a four-year sentence for drugs in Kerobokan prison said that Myuran deserved to live as he had given chances to many prisoners to learn and gain many skills.

'€œPersonally, I hate drug dealers. I was a drug addict and alcoholic. I never had a plan to stop using drugs before I got there [Kerobokan prison]. But then I met Myuran. He and a prison guard gave me a chance to learn positive things in there. I was able to join a computer class, philosophy class and learn tennis,'€ said the woman. The computer and philosophy classes were set up by Sukumaran, while the tennis class was set up by Chan.