Lawyer won't surrender hope for Bali Nine

Barrister Michael O'Connell says Indonesia must not execute the Bali Nine ringleaders while an appeal and corruption claims are unresolved.

Indonesian police line up during a preparation

Indonesian police line up. (AAP)

Condemned drug smugglers Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran are in good spirits and coping remarkably well as the clock ticks down towards their executions, one of their Australian lawyers says.

Michael O'Connell says it's appalling that Indonesia is moving the Bali Nine ringleaders to their place of execution when a final legal appeal and allegations of judicial corruption are yet to be resolved.

But the Melbourne barrister says as long as the men are alive, there's hope Indonesia will do the right thing.

"It's been very distressing to see what's happening this morning," he said of the chaotic scenes outside Bali's Kerobokan prison, as the men were driven away, bound for the island where they will be shot.

"There's always hope while they are alive."

Mr O'Connell the men should not have been moved, given their legal team is pursuing an appeal in a Jakarta court.

He said there were also proceedings before a judicial commission, alleging judges in the trial that saw the pair sentenced to death, offered more lenient sentences in return for cash.

"It would be expected that Andrew and Myuran would give evidence about the allegations and about what happened in the earlier hearings, and obviously they can't do that if they were to be killed," Mr O'Connell has told Fairfax radio.

"If Indonesia is to respect the rule of law then it can't proceed with these executions in these circumstances."

He said the men's last night at Kerobokan jail was calm.

"Both Myuran and Andrew were last night quite calm and in good spirits and really coping remarkably well given all of this terrible speculation about what will happen to them," he said.

Mr O'Connell said both men were extraordinary examples of how Indonesia's rehabilitation program could work.

"The objective of the Indonesian prison system, they say, is to try to rehabilitate people and change them.

"In Andrew and Myuran ... you've got these great success stories and the idea now that you should go out and kill them is very hard to fathom."


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Source: AAP


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