The families of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran have given their first exclusive interviews for an Indonesian TV station, with a broadcast of their pleas for mercy airing in Indonesia overnight.
According to The Sydney Morning Herald, an extensive interview conducted with the parents and siblings of Chan and Sukumaran in Indonesia was cut to a brief 45 seconds and remained in English—without subtitles—as it was broadcast. The short clip from the interview was shown in a news wrap up on the news program Metro Hari Ini, and quoted Andrew Chan’s brother Michael saying:
“We feel embarrassed because this happened. We, as a family, know that this has caused a lot of shame for Indonesians and we apologise. But I think [in] 10 years he had done a lot of good things for Indonesians inside the prison system to try and ask for forgiveness.”
“He’s a changed person and I’m begging the president not to execute him,” Myuran Sukumaran’s mother said in the interview.
Meanwhile, the ABC reports that Prime Minister Tony Abbott made a phone call directly to Indonesian President Widodo last night, asking for mercy for the two men currently on death row. At present, there is no sign of Widodo granting eleventh hour clemency to the pair.
In a statement last month, Tony Abbott said,
“Both men are reformed characters and both have helped to rehabilitate other prisoners. The prerogative of mercy should be extended to them.”
via SMH.
Lead image by Jason Childs via Getty.
