Indonesia issues execution orders for Australians, Filipino

SYDNEY - Two Australian drug traffickers and a Filipino woman were on Saturday given official notification by Indonesia that they will be executed, but with no given date, reports and a lawyer said.

They include Australians Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, ringleaders of the "Bali Nine" heroin trafficking gang, and mother-of-two Mary Jane Veloso.

There was no official word on the fate of several other foreign drug convicts due to face the firing squad, including one each from Brazil and France and four from Africa.

This combination file photo taken on February 14, 2006 shows Australians Myuran Sukumaran (L) and Andrew Chan (R), the two ringleaders of the "Bali Nine" drug ring, being escorted out of a court after their verdict in Denpasar on Bali island. Two Australian drug traffickers and a Filipino woman were on April 25, 2015 given official notification by Indonesia that they will be executed, but with no given date, reports and a lawyer said.   AFP PHOTO / Jewel SAMAD / FILES

"We received an order of execution but that does not mean she will be executed soon," Edre Olalia, a lawyer for Veloso, told DZMM radio in Manila from Jakarta.

"The date was not specified. It is not saying she will be executed soon."

Consular officials had earlier Saturday been summoned to a town near Nusakambangan, the high-security prison island where Indonesia carries out its executions.

Jakarta must give 72 hours notice before an execution and News Limited newspapers in Australia said Indonesian authorities had confirmed the two Australians would be among a group of death row prisoners to be shot as early as next week.

"We will give the notification today," Indonesian Attorney General spokesman Tony Spontana told the media group.

"But it doesn't mean the execution will be within three days. It could be more than three days."

All of those facing death have lost appeals for clemency from President Joko Widodo, who argues that Indonesia is fighting a drugs emergency.

Frenchman not included

Frenchman Serge Atlaoui, 51, will not be included in an upcoming batch of executions, as he still has a legal appeal outstanding, an official said Saturday.

Asked if reports were true that Serge Atlaoui, 51, would be excluded from the forthcoming batch, Tony Spontana, a spokesman for the Indonesian attorney-general, responded: "Yes, correct".

"All embassies have been invited today to come to Cilacap except for the French because we only gather those whose citizens have finished their legal processes," he told AFP, adding that Atlaoui still had an appeal pending in the State Administrative Court. 

Cilacap is the gateway to Nusakambangan, a prison island where the executions will be carried out. 

Atlaoui recently lost an appeal to the Indonesian Supreme Court, and his legal team have lodged a further legal bid with the State Court, but this is viewed has having little chance of success.

Jakarta has previously said that all legal avenues have been exhausted and convicts are simply trying to buy time. 

However France has mounted a sustained diplomatic campaign to save Atlaoui, with President Francois Hollande on Saturday warning Jakarta there will be "diplomatic consequences" if he is put to death.

AFP