Australians await death on Indonesia island
Amid Canberra’s outcry, Indonesia has moved two Australian drug smugglers from their Bali prison to an island where they will be executed.
On Wednesday, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were taken from the island's Kerobokan jail to the airport to be transferred to Nusakambangan island, home to several high-security prisons.
The Australian convicts were arrested in 2005 and sentenced to death a year later for trying to smuggle 8.3 kilograms of heroin out of the Indonesian resort island of Bali into Australia.
The two are the only members of the dismantled Bali Nine drug-smuggling ring on death row. The remaining Bali Nine members were sentenced to life or 20 years in prison.
Jakarta and Canberra have been at loggerheads over the fate of the two prisoners, with Canberra warning of a severe diplomatic response, including a boycott on traveling to Indonesia if Jakarta proceeds with the executions.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott (pictured below) has repeatedly called for Jakarta not to go ahead with the executions.
Speaking just before the transfer began, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said, "We abhor drug crime but we abhor the death penalty as well, which we think is beneath a country such as Indonesia."
"We frankly are revolted by the prospect of these executions," Abbott stated.
HN/MHB/AS
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