The devastated brother of Andrew Chan has vented his anger at Indonesia for executing him alongside fellow Bali Nine ringleader Myuran Sukumaran.
Michael Chan has expressed his utter devastation at the loss of his little brother, and had raw words of anger for the country that rejected years of appeals by Australia to spare the men.
“I have just lost a courageous brother to a flawed Indonesian legal system. I miss you already RIP my Little Brother,” he tweeted, soon after the men were executed on the prison island of Nusakambangan early on Wednesday.
The pair and six others were put before a firing squad. A ninth prisoner who was scheduled to die, Mary Jane Veloso, was spared at the last moment.
Chan and Sukumaran sang songs of praise as they faced the firing squad, and conducted themselves with “dignity and strength until the end”, says the Melbourne-based husband of Pastor Christie Buckingham, who’s in Indonesia
Rob Buckingham says his wife told him “the eight of them walked out onto the killing field singing songs of praise”.
There were concerns Buckingham wouldn’t be allowed to see the men before their deaths, but a last-minute reprieve allowed her to read them their last rites, Rob Buckingham said.
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Other supporters of the pair expressed their grief this morning.
The futility of years of legal appeals and challenges was evident in the words of Chan and Sukumaran’s Indonesian lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis, who tweeted: “I am sorry. I failed. I lost.”
The floodlit execution ground. AAP photo
Amnesty International condemned the executions as a cruel, senseless and abhorrent act of state-sanctioned murder.
“Despite promising steps away from the death penalty prior to 2013 and four years without any executions, Indonesia’s resumption of this cruel and inhuman punishment has put them well out of step with the rest of the world,” Amnesty campaigner and human rights lawyer Diana Sayed said in a statement.
Australian politicians have also begun to express their anger at Indonesia’s actions.
Opposition leader Bill Shorten said Australia was deeply hurt by Jakarta’s decision to ignore its appeals, and it should expect consequences.
“Indonesia’s actions demand a strong response from the Australian government,” he said, adding Jakarta had robbed two young men of their lives and two of the best examples of its ability to reform prisoners.
Other politicians have also expressed their revulsion at the executions.
“There are few greater displays of abuse of State power and regressive thinking than the death penalty. #RIP,” parliamentary secretary for foreign affairs Steve Ciobo tweeted.
Opposition frontbencher Tony Burke said “Lives lost. Nothing gained. #IStandForMercy”.
Fellow federal Labor MP Anthony Albanese wrote: “RIP Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran – a tragic loss of human life on a very sad day.”
The two Australians and six others were shot dead at 12.25am (0325 AEST) on the island of Nusakambangan on Wednesday.
Mary Jane Veloso, the former domestic worker from the Philippines, was given a last minute stay of execution after a person claiming to have recruited her for a drug syndicate came forward in her home country.
