Bali Nine: Myuran Sukumaran makes personal appeal to president Joko Widodo with portrait signed 'people can change'

Updated

Australian death-row prisoner Myuran Sukumaran has made a personal appeal for mercy to Joko Widodo, painting a portrait of the Indonesian president and signing it with the words "people can change".

Sukumaran led an art studio for his fellow prisoners during his time in Kerobokan prison, where he was mentored since 2012 by celebrated war artist Ben Quilty.

Sukumaran was recently awarded an associate degree in fine arts by Curtin University.

The portrait of Mr Widodo is Sukumaran's most recent work.

He painted the oil on canvas artwork in Kerobokan prison in late January, in his final weeks there before being transferred to Nusakambangan island.

Sukumaran and fellow Bali Nine ringleader Andrew Chan have spent a week on "execution island", where they are awaiting a court appeal against their expected executions for heroin smuggling.

Australia's consul-general to Bali, Majell Hind, today visited the prisoners to check on their welfare.

It was her third trip to the island since Chan and Sukumaran were transferred there from Bali last Tuesday.

Both prisoners are said to be doing well.

Sukumaran and Chan's families visited them for the first time on the island on Monday and are due to do so again on Wednesday.

Chan and Sukumaran are among 10 death-row prisoners awaiting news of the timing of their executions.

Several of them have ongoing legal appeals before Indonesia's courts and although the attorney-general says everything is almost ready for the executions to proceed, that will not happen until many of the legal processes are settled.

Lawyers for Sukumaran and Chan will be back in court on Thursday, arguing that their appeal to president Widodo for clemency was not properly considered.

According to Endy Bayuni of the Jakarta Post, there is logic in the approach.

"Because the...government has been using the law as the defence for the executions, therefore the battle will have to be through the legal process," he said.

Topics: prisons-and-punishment, law-crime-and-justice, drug-offences, crime, government-and-politics, bali, indonesia, australia

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