It is with heavy hearts we report the execution of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran has been carried out.
Bali Nine ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran have been executed by firing squad in Indonesia.
After an unsuccessful legal battle to save the duo, their executions were two of eight reportedly carried out on at Nusakambangan prison in Indonesia just after midnight at 12.25am Indonesian time (3:35am EST).
The executions apparently happened one after another.
The condemned men reportedly sang Amazing Grace in their final minutes, with Chan and Sukumaran singing the loudest.
Irish-born priest Father Charlie Burrows, who was present at the executions, told News Corp the prisoners were tied with cable ties to crosses about four metres apart.
“When they were being put on the cross for execution, they were singing on the crosses and we were in a tent not too far away from the execution place trying to support them,” Father Burrows said.
He said both the men and their advisers in the tent were singing hymns.
Father Burrows said the group sang Amazing Grace a few times and Chan and Sukumaran seemed to have the loudest voices.
Fairfax correspondent Jewel Topsfield reports Chan and Sukumaran, along with the other six prisoners executed this morning, refused to wear blindfolds while facing the firing squad.
One of the prisoners due to be executed, Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso received a last minute stay of execution after Indonesian President Joko Widodo asked the Indonesian Attorney General, H.M. Prasetyo to delay. (For more on Mary Jane Velso, see this post.)
Related content: ‘Boycott Indonesia’: The world reacts to the executions.
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Congratulations Indonesia? Great way to show the world how heartless you can be
I am deeply sympathetic to Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran and their families - there are zero winners in what has occurred in Bali. I don't agree with the death penalty and i don't believe it to be an equitable punishment for the crime committed. The Indonesian justice system, corruption aside, is deeply flawed and I think the handling and lack of dignity shown to the families is horrendous.
However, I feel that although unjust, unfair and wrong this was the sentence that was handed out ten years ago, and today these people are held up in Australian media as some kind of brave heroes. There has been rolling coverage since last night and every news outlet, tv station and social media feed is flooded.
These men, although rehabilitated, are not brave heroes. Anzacs are heroes. Police Officers are heroes. Firemen are heroes. I have not seen the same type of coverage given to soldiers that were killed in action in Afghanistan in the past ten years. No mention is made of the 41 Australian military personnel that bravely and heroically gave there lives so that we could have better ones.
So whilst abhorrent and deeply flawed, please stop referring to these men as brave. Brave would have been making a decision to choose a better path for themselves ten years ago, away from the drug trade.