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Nine convicts await fate as AGO finalizes execution schedule

One eerie day:   Police officers at a dock in Cilacap, Central Java, guard a vessel set to transfer Filipina drug convict Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso to the nearby Nusakambangan prison island on Friday

Fedina S. Sundaryani and Agus Maryono (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta/Cilacap
Sat, April 25, 2015

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Nine convicts await fate as AGO finalizes execution schedule One eerie day:: Police officers at a dock in Cilacap, Central Java, guard a vessel set to transfer Filipina drug convict Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso to the nearby Nusakambangan prison island on Friday. Veloso, who was transferred from Wirogunan prison, is among nine people to be executed soon at Nusakambangan. (JP/Agus Maryono) (JP/Agus Maryono)

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span class="inline inline-center">One eerie day:   Police officers at a dock in Cilacap, Central Java, guard a vessel set to transfer Filipina drug convict Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso to the nearby Nusakambangan prison island on Friday. Veloso, who was transferred from Wirogunan prison, is among nine people to be executed soon at Nusakambangan. (JP/Agus Maryono)

After death row convict Filipina Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso was transferred to Nusakambangan prison island on Friday, the Attorney General'€™s Office (AGO) indicated that the executions of a group of drug convicts is imminent, although no dates have been set.

AGO spokesman Tony Spontana confirmed on Friday that Veloso had been moved to the prison island near Cilacap, Central Java, on Friday morning to join eight other death row convicts awaiting execution.

'€œMary Jane has already been placed in the isolation cell that was prepared for her, although we have not decided on a date yet,'€ Tony told reporters.

Veloso was sentenced to death in 2010 for attempting to smuggle 2.6 kilograms of heroin worth Rp 5.5 billion (US$424,879) from Kuala Lumpur.

Tony stressed that although a notification to prepare for the executions had been sent on Thursday, the AGO was still waiting for the Supreme Court to respond to a case review appeal filed by another of the convicts, Indonesian Zainal Abidin.

He said that the Supreme Court'€™s response to the plea from Zainal, who was sentenced to death in 2001 for possessing 58.7 kilograms of marijuana, was expected to be issued on Friday.

'€œOnce we receive the news, we will immediately set a date for the executions,'€ Tony said, adding that the AGO would also wait for the Asian-African Conference Commemoration (AACC) to conclude before carrying out the executions.

The eight others who are set to be executed are two Australians '€” Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran '€” who are members of the Bali Nine drug trafficking group, Nigerians Raheem Agbaje Salami, Okwudili Oyatanze and Sylvester Obiekwe Nwolise alias Mustofa, Frenchman Serge Areski Atlaoui, Brazilian Rodrigo Gularte and Ghanaian Martin Anderson alias Belo.

The 10 convicts make up the second batch of drug convicts set to be executed this year. The first batch, consisting of six people, faced the firing squad on Jan. 18.

Tony said that the Foreign Ministry had invited diplomats from each convict'€™s respective home country to visit Nusakambangan on Saturday.

'€œThe law dictates that the convicts and their relatives should be notified at least three days before the execution takes place. However, it is possible to tell them long before that. We are giving each country'€™s representative and the families of the convicts the opportunity to meet the convicts,'€ he said.

Tony said that invitations had been sent to the ambassadors of Australia, France, Brazil, Nigeria and Ghana. He maintained that although Salami possessed Spanish documents, the Nigerian embassy had confirmed his Nigerian citizenship.

Meanwhile, Foreign Ministry spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir confirmed that ambassadors from relevant countries had been invited but declined to say who had confirmed their attendance.

'€œ[The delegates] were invited to attend a briefing [at Nusakambangan island]. Nothing more than that,'€ he told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

Several foreign governments have expressed concern over the planned executions.

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop appealed for Indonesia to show mercy but said she was expecting the worst. '€œI fear that Indonesia will seek to proceed with the execution of the two Australian citizens. I am deeply and profoundly concerned about this,'€ she said at NATO headquarters in Brussels.

In Paris, French President Francois Hollande urged Indonesian authorities to grant clemency to Atlaoui, telling a news conference that executing Atlaoui '€œwould be damaging for the relations we want to have with Indonesia'€.

In Manila, about 100 supporters of Veloso, including her husband Michael Candelaria and her older brother, picketed the Indonesian embassy, pleading for her life to be spared.

'€œIt is very hard for us to accept that she is innocent but that she will still be executed,'€ Candelaria said. '€œGod knows she is innocent.'€

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