Jakarta. Conflicting reports emerged on Saturday evening over the fate of 10 prisoners due to be executed by firing squad in Indonesia.

“President Widodo has an important opportunity to signal Indonesia’s rejection of the death penalty by sparing the lives of the 10 people facing looming execution,” said Phelim Kine, deputy Asia director. “Widodo can demonstrate true leadership by ending capital punishment as unacceptable state brutality.”

The Indonesian government continued on Saturday to parrot the line that this was a national legal matter despite widespread criticism of Indonesia’s application of the rule of law and correct legal process in convicting, among others, a woman from the Philippines, who maintains she was duped into trafficking drugs, and a Brazilian man diagnosed with a mental illness.

“This is the matter of law,” Minister of Foreign Affairs Retno LP.Marsudi told Detik.com on Saturday

The Indonesian government dismissed comments by the President of France, Francois Hollande, that there would be serious consequences if Indonesia insisted on executing a French national, although reports on Saturday said that Serge Atlaoui would not be executed in the next round of prisoners set to face the firing squad.

Hollande said the execution of Serge Atlaoui for his role in an ecstasy production facility could put the cooperation between the two countries as discussed in the G20 summit on hold.

The French government has expressed deep concerns about the integrity of the legal process that handed Atlaoui the death penalty.

The Jakarta Globe could not independently confirm the information. Officials in Indonesia occasionally release incorrect information to the press when news is breaking.

Reuters reported on Saturday that Atlaoui is not among the next round of drug convicts to be executed in Indonesia, citing a French embassy official.

An official at the French embassy in Jakarta told Reuters it had been notified by the Attorney General’s Office that its national would not be in the next round of executions.

Agence France-Presse, meanwhile, reported that Australians Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, ringleaders of the “Bali Nine” heroin trafficking gang, and mother-of-two Mary Jane Veloso had been informed they would be executed.

Reuters reported that Indonesia told Australia officials on Saturday that the execution of two Australian men would be “scheduled imminently”, citing Australian Foreign minister Julie Bishop.

AFP said there was no word on the fate of several other foreign drug convicts due to face the firing squad.

Retno said Indonesia did not wish to have a poor relationship with any country.

“Regarding the bilateral relationship, it is Indonesia’s intention to always improve bilateral relationships with other countries,” Retno said.

Attorney General HM.Prasetyo said strong diplomatic language was common when an execution was near, but that any eleventh-hour pleas would fall on deaf ears.

“Death sentences will proceed, such pressures happen all the time,” Prasetyo said.

All 10 people set to face the imminent execution have been transferred to the maximum-security prison in Nusakambangan, Central Java.

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Source: The Jakarta Globe