INDONESIA has formally told the Australian Embassy in Jakarta that the Bali Nine duo will be executed this month.

“We have sent notification to the Australian Embassy yesterday afternoon, to notify that the execution will be held this month,” Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Armanantha Nassir confirmed.

“We sent the notification after we were notified by the Attorney General about the execution plan,” he said.

Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan were told the devastating news this morning in jail by the Australian Consulate to Bali, Majel Hind sources told News Corporation.

The Indonesian Foreign Ministry confirmed it had formally told the embassies of all the foreign citizens facing execution last night that their clemency had been denied and they would be executed.

LETTER: Bali Nine duo beg government for their lives

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News_Image_File: Devastated ... Myuran Sukumaran's mother Raji and his brother Chintu visit him in Kerobokan jail. Picture: Lukman S. Bintoro

However no date has yet been set and the numbers of those to be executed is unclear although it is up to eight, including Chan and Sukumaran.

Their families, who are visiting them in Bali during the emotional wait for news of their fate, are understood to be utterly devastated after being delivered the grim news this morning in the jail.

Sukumaran’s devastated mother and sister today made a tearful plea outside Bali’s Kerobokan jail, begging for his life.

“Please don’t kill them. They are good children,” Raji Sukumaran said after learning that the Indonesian authorities had told them the duo will be executed this month.

“Give him a second chance … we don’t know how long we’ve got,” an emotional Mrs Sukumaran said. “They have rehabilitated, they are doing a lot of good things here, they are good children.”

News_Module: NND Bali 9 MultiPromo

Sukumaran’s younger sister Brintha cried as she begged for her brother to be allowed to live.

“Please don’t kill my brother, please, he is a good person. He is rehabilitated and we love him so much, please don’t kill him, please, please,” Brintha said.

She said her brother was scared, she could see it in his eyes. She asked President Joko Widodo, “please don’t kill him. He is the only one who can help us.”

Brintha said that Myuran had just sold some of his paintings to pay for an operation for a female prisoner who has a type of pancreatic cancer.

“He is doing everything he can to help people inside, no-one is listening to us. It is not fair,” Brintha said.

News_Image_File: Tragic ... Myuran Sukumaran's sister Brintha has visited him often in jail throughout the years. Picture: Lukman S. Bintoro

Earlier Australian expat Lizzie Love, who teaches classes in the jail, bought some of Sukumaran’s paintings out, saying they had been sold and enough money had now been raised to pay for the female prisoner’s operation.

The news of the execution comes after the pair’s bid to lodge a second judicial review of their case was rejected by the courts this week and their bid for Presidential clemency was rejected last month by President Joko Widodo who has declared “no mercy” for drug traffickers.

A host of former prisoners, praising Chan and Sukumaran for their work in the jail, have written to the President urging him to see their rehabilitation work for himself and cancel their executions.

One, Rico Richardo has offered to take Andrew Chan’s place in front of the firing squad, such is his admiration for the man he says saved his life.

News_Image_File: Distraught ... Andrew Chan's sister was visibly upset on her visits to see Andrew. Picture: Lukman S. Bintoro

“If the honourable Bapak President insists on executing Andrew Chan, I Rico Richardo as Indonesia citizen am ready to replace Andrew Chan as the death row convict that will be executed,” Mr Richardo wrote in the letter to the President.

The government has said previously that eight drug traffickers, seven of them foreigners, will be the next to be executed and include the two Australians and citizens of the Philippines, France, Ghana, Nigeria and Brazil.

But late last night the Attorney-General HM Prasetyo said no date had been set and suggested the executions would not take place until the clemency of a Nigerian man, sentenced to death and subsequently found to be running a drug racket in jail, had been rejected.

He said many things had to be considered and was uncertain if the executions would be this month.

News_Image_File: Remained hopeful ... Andrew Chan's mother Helen along with the rest of the family have fought hard to save their son. Picture: Picture: Lukman S. Bintoro

He also suggested British nationals were involved however both British citizens on death row are yet to exhaust all their legal avenues.

Judicial authorities in Bali were also scheduled today to meet to discuss the executions. It is unlikely the Bali Nine will be executed in Bali and will more likely be taken to Nusa Kamangan, an island of six jails of the coast of Central Java. It was here that the last executions, on January 18, took place.

The head of Bali’s Prosecutor’s office, Momock Bambang Samiarso, said meetings were being held between the police, prison, prosecutors and the Bali Governor, regarding the fate of Chan and Sukumaran.

Mr Samiarso said today that he had yet to be formally advised the executions would take place at Nusa Kambangan and had not been given any date yet.

News_Image_File: Efforts exhausted ... Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan wrote a final letter to the government begging to be spared from death and keep helping the community. Picture: Lukman S. Bintoro

He said moving Chan and Sukumaran to Nusa Kambangan was logistically not easy and commercial airlines may refuse to fly them because they do not want passengers on the flight.

Chan and Sukumaran were sentenced to death in 2006 after being found guilty of masterminding a bid to export 8.2kg of heroin from Bali to Sydney.

They have lost all appeals against the death penalty and this week lost a bid to have their case reviewed by a second judicial review or PK.

Authorities have been at loggerheads over whether one or more PKs are allowed and suggested they will shortly legislate to allow more than one. But currently only is allowed and the Sydney men have lodged and lost that one several years ago.

The Denpasar District Court said this week that the PK was not accepted because there was no new evidence, as required, and that only PK was allowed.

The duo’s lawyers have pledged further legal avenues will be explored in the battle to save their lives and have vowed to fight to the end.