The transfer of two Australians to an Indonesian island prison for execution will not go ahead this week as planned, the attorney-general's office said today, as Canberra pressed for their lives to be spared.
Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, ringleaders of the so-called Bali Nine heroin trafficking group, were to be transported this week to the high-security prison for their execution, followed by several other prisoners whose appeals for mercy have also been rejected.
Indonesian authorities have confirmed the Australians will be among the next group to face the firing squad, but have remained tight-lipped about which foreign convicts will join them or when the execution will take place.
But attorney-general's spokesman Tony Spontana announced today that the prisoners would not be moved to Nusakambangan Island, off the main island of Java, until a date for their execution had been determined.
"It is delayed. The transfer will not be done this week," he told AFP.
"The transfer of the convicts will be carried out closer to the execution date."
Spontana insisted the executions would proceed, but the prisoners would only be taken to the island prison three days beforehand. Death row inmates must be given 72 hours' notice under Indonesian law before facing the firing squad.
The decision to delay the move was made after the Australian government asked for more time for the families to be with their loved ones, Spontana said.
Logistical difficulties involving capacity at Nusakambangan were also cited as a reason.
The Australians and five other foreigners - including citizens from France, Ghana, Brazil and Nigeria - have already lost their appeals for presidential clemency, the final hope of avoiding the firing squad.
Legal and diplomatic efforts to save the Australians have escalated in recent weeks, with every surviving former prime minister of Australia urging Jakarta today to spare their lives.
Australia's current government has urged Indonesia - which faced a diplomatic outcry last month when it executed six drug offenders including five foreigners - not to proceed, particularly while last-ditch legal measures are being pursued.
