The brother of Bali 9 prisoner Andrew Chan has described the family’s last moments with him as “torture”.
“Through these tough and dark hours, I saw today something that no other family should ever have to go through,” an emotional Michael Chan told reporters in Indonesia after returning from Nusakambangan Island where the Bali 9 pair are set to be executed along with seven other prisoners in the first hours of Wednesday morning.
“Nine families inside a prison saying goodbye to their loved ones – kids, mothers, cousins, brothers, sisters, cousins – you name it, they were all there. And to walk out of there and say goodbye for the last time, it’s torture. No family should go through that.”
The families of Chan and Myuran Sukumaran addressed the media, still publically pleading to Indonesian president Joko Widodo for clemency, after visiting their condemned loved ones for what is almost certainly the last time before the pair face a firing squad.
“I won’t see my son again and they are going to take him tonight and shoot him and he is healthy and he is beautiful and he has a lot of compassion for other people,” mother Raji Sukumaran said.
“I am asking the government not to kill him. Please president, please don’t kill him today. Call off the execution.”
Chintu Sukumaran, Myuran’s brother, also pleased for Joko Widodo to take pity on the family and intervene. He said his condemned sibling believes the executions would have no effect on drugs trafficking in the country.
“We didn’t have much time, there were so many things to talk about,” Chintu, his sister Brintha Sukumaran crying on his shoulder, said of their last moments with their brother.
“We did talk about the death penalty and he knows this is just a waste. It’s not going to solve anything with drugs. Tomorrow, next week, next month, it’s still not going to stop anything with drugs.
“If these nine people die today, it’s still not going to stop anything. I ask the president to please show mercy. Please don’t; please don’t let my mum and my sister have to bury my brother.”
Chintu Sukumaran added that the families will maintain hope till the very end.
“We still have hope right up until the last second that the president will see each of these people are individuals, as people with families that love them and show mercy,” he said.
A distraught Brintha also pleaded for clemency.
“Please don’t do this to my brother. I beg you please, please don’t take my brother from me,” she sobbed.
IMAGE; Brintha Sukumaran, the sister of Australian drug convict and death row prisoner Myuran Sukumaran, breaks down on Tuesday. (Romeo Gacad/AFP/Getty Images)
