CILICAP, Indonesia (AP) — Ambulances carrying coffins arrived Tuesday at a prison island and relatives paid final visits to their condemned loved ones in a sign that Indonesia will imminently execute eight foreigners and one Indonesian man, despite an international outcry and pleas for mercy. 
 
 Celia Veloso, center, mother of Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipino woman on death row, arrives at Wijayapura ferry port to cross to the prison island of Nusakambangan, in Cilacap, Central Java, Indonesia, Tuesday,... (Associated Press) 
 
 Members of the media photograph a convoy of ambulances as they arrive at Wijayapura ferry port to cross to the prison island of Nusakambangan, in Cilacap, Central Java, Indonesia, Tuesday, April 28, 2015.... (Associated Press) 
 
 Members of the media photograph a convoy of ambulances as they arrive at Wijayapura ferry port to cross to the prison island of Nusakambangan, in Cilacap, Central Java, Indonesia, Tuesday, April 28, 2015.... (Associated Press) 
 
 Chintu Sukumaran, left, brother of Myuran Sukumaran, an Australian on death row, arrives at Wijayapura ferry port to cross to the prison island of Nusakambangan, in Cilacap, Central Java, Indonesia, Tuesday,... (Associated Press) 
 
 Mark Daniel, left, and Mark Darren, sons of Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipino woman on death row, arrive at Wijayapura ferry port to cross to the prison island of Nusakambangan, in Cilacap, Central Java, Indonesia,... (Associated Press) 
 
 Michael Chan, center, brother of Andrew Chan, an Australian on death row, walks upon arrival at Wijayapura ferry port to cross to the prison island of Nusakambangan, in Cilacap, Central Java, Indonesia,... (Associated Press) 
 
 Michael Chan, left, and Chintu Sukumaran, brothers of Australian death row prisoners Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, carry a self-portrait drawn by Sukumaran after visiting the prison island of Nusakambangan... (Associated Press) 
 
 Indonesian police officers with their dogs stand guard at Wijayapura port in Cilacap, Central Java, Indonesia, Monday, April 27, 2015, Indonesia, Tuesday, April 28, 2015. Indonesia notified nine foreigners... (Associated Press) 
 
 Brintha Sukumaran, center, sisters of Myuran Sukumaran, an Australian on death row, cries upon arrival at Wijayapura ferry port to cross to the prison island of Nusakambangan, in Cilacap, Central Java,... (Associated Press) 
 
 A paper printed with the name of Filipino woman on death row for drug offenses Mary Jane Veloso is put on the dashboard of a police ambulance carrying empty coffin, upon arrival to cross to the prison... (Associated Press) 
 
 Armed police officers and security personnel stand guard as a ferry carrying ambulances prepares to set off for Nusakambangan island in Cilacap, Central Java, Indonesia, Tuesday, April 28, 2015. Indonesia... (Associated Press) 
 
 The nine inmates, all convicted on drug charges, were given 72-hour notices over the weekend that they would be executed by a firing squad, prompting a flurry of last-minute lobbying by foreign leaders. The United Nations has argued that the inmates' crimes are not egregious enough to warrant the ultimate punishment. 
 
 Indonesia has not confirmed exactly when the executions will take place. But the arrival of the coffins and the families' visits Tuesday, along with Indonesia's usual execution protocol, suggest the inmates will be shot by the firing squad shortly after midnight. 
 
 Among the condemned are two Australians — Myuran Sukumaran, 33, and Andrew Chan, 31 — whose emotional families made what could be their last visit to Besi prison on Nusakambangan island, where the prisoners are scheduled to die. Sukumaran's sister, Brintha, wailed in agony and had to be carried through a crowd of media waiting at the ferry port to the island. 
 
 Chan received a visit from Febyanti Herewila, an Indonesian Christian pastor who became his wife in a marriage ceremony on the island on Monday. 
 
 A dozen ambulances, nine carrying coffins, were driven onto the ferry to Nusakambangan. On the dashboard of one ambulance was a piece of paper bearing the name of Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipino woman who is among those scheduled to die. 
 
 Over the weekend, authorities asked the nine inmates — the two Australians and Veloso, as well as four Nigerian men and one man each from Brazil and Indonesia — for their last wishes and gave them 72-hour notices of their executions. 
 
 On Tuesday, Australia's foreign minister defended Prime Minister Tony Abbott against online criticism that he had not done enough to save the lives of Sukumaran and Chan. 
 
 Australian actors including Geoffrey Rush, Guy Pearce, Joel Edgerton and Bryan Brown have launched an online video calling for Indonesia to show mercy to the two men. 
 
 "Tony, if you have any courage and compassion, you'd get over to Indonesia and bring these two boys home," actor Brendan Cowell said to the prime minister. 
 
 But Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said the Australian government was acting on advice from Australian diplomats in Jakarta who were part of a sustained campaign seeking a stay of execution. 
 
 "Clearly if traveling to Indonesia would make a difference, we would have gone there," Bishop told Nine Network television. 
 
 Abbott has spoken to Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo several times on the issue, most recently in Singapore in late March at the funeral of Lee Kuan Yew, the city-state's first prime minister, Bishop said. 
 
 Bishop said her Indonesian counterpart, Retno Marsudi, wrote to her Monday night and gave no indication that the executions would not go ahead as early as Wednesday morning. 
 
 "While they are still alive, there is still hope and I will continue to advocate all throughout today," Bishop said. 
 
 Indonesian Attorney General Muhammad Prasetyo said Monday that another convict, Frenchman Serge Atlaoui, would not be executed with the others because he still has an outstanding legal complaint over the rejection of his clemency appeal. 
 
 Prasetyo said Atlaoui would later face a firing squad alone if his complaint is turned down by the Administrative Court. Similar appeals by Sukumaran and Chan were rejected by the Administrative Court and the High Administrative Court, with both ruling that clemency is the prerogative of the president. 
 
 The head of Europe's human rights watchdog on Tuesday urged Indonesia not to carry out the executions. The France-based Council of Europe holds its 47 member countries accountable to the European Convention on Human Rights, which opposes the death penalty. 
 
 "The death penalty is a terrible injustice which can never be put right," Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland said in a statement. He urged Indonesia to refrain from the executions and "then to consider introducing a moratorium on the death penalty with a view to working towards abolition." 
 
 Philippine President Benigno Aquino III appealed to Jokowi on Monday to spare the life of Veloso, the Filipino drug convict, in a meeting on the sidelines of an annual summit of Southeast Asian leaders in Malaysia. 
 
 Filipino boxing champion Manny Pacquiao also appealed to Jokowi to spare Veloso's life. 
 
 "I am begging and knocking at your kind heart that your excellency will grant executive clemency to her by sparing her life and saving her from execution," Pacquiao said in a live interview from Los Angeles with Philippine network GMA News. 
 
 Veloso's two sons and her mother were seen arriving at the prison for a final visit. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press writers Rod McGuirk in Canberra, Australia, Kristen Gelineau in Sydney, Niniek Karmini and Ali Kotarumalos in Jakarta, Indonesia, Teresa Cerojano in Manila, Philippines, and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report. ||||| Media caption Tony Abbott: "Australia deeply, deeply regrets these executions in Indonesia" 
 
 Australia has recalled its ambassador from Indonesia after two Australian men were executed for drug smuggling. 
 
 Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were among eight people from several countries executed by firing squad in the early hours of Wednesday on the prison island of Nusakambangan. 
 
 Brazil's government also expressed its "deep dismay" at the execution of one of its citizens, Rodrigo Gularte. 
 
 But the execution of a Philippine woman was called off at the last minute. 
 
 Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso was spared after Philippines officials said a woman she had accused of planting drugs on her was in police custody. 
 
 How was Mary Jane Veloso spared? 
 
 The families of the condemned prisoners paid them final, emotional visits on Tuesday afternoon before the sentences were carried out. 
 
 All eight refused offers of blindfolds and were singing together in their final moments, a pastor present at the execution told the Sydney Morning Herald. 
 
 Hours after the executions, ambulances left the prison island, taking the prisoners' bodies to their chosen funeral sites in Indonesia or their home countries. 
 
 Image copyright AFP Image caption Andrew Chan (left) and Myuran Sukumaran were sentenced to death in 2006 
 
 Image copyright AP Image caption Australia said Sukumaran and Chan were reformed characters - Sukumaran painted while in prison, creating this self portrait 
 
 Australia had mounted a lengthy diplomatic campaign to save Chan and Sukumaran, convicted in 2006 of being the ringleaders of a group of Australian heroin traffickers known as the Bali Nine. 
 
 Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said on Tuesday that the executions were "cruel and unnecessary", adding that Chan and Sukumaran had been "fully rehabilitated" while in prison. 
 
 "We respect Indonesia's sovereignty but we do deplore what's been done and this cannot be simply business as usual," he said. 
 
 Media caption Footage shows ambulances carrying coffins and candlelit vigils held by activists 
 
 This is the first time Australia has recalled an ambassador from Indonesia, and its first-ever recall over the execution of one of its citizens abroad. 
 
 Indonesian Attorney General Muhammad Prasetyo defended the executions, saying his country was fighting a "war" on drugs. 
 
 Indonesia is an important country to Australia, the BBC's Jon Donnison says, with the two working closely together on asylum seekers and terrorism issues. 
 
 Analysis: Karishma Vaswani, BBC Indonesia editor 
 
 Joko Widodo, Indonesia's president, has publicly declared a war on drugs and said he will refuse all clemency applications from convicted drug traffickers - a stance that could prove legally problematic given that the very point of a presidential clemency is to evaluate each individual on a case-by-case basis. 
 
 But that will be little comfort to the families of the eight people who were executed. 
 
 Indonesia risks souring relations with other nations over its hardline approach, as it has already with Australia, home of two of the smugglers. But Indonesia's new president appears willing to take the risk, even if it means tarnishing his own reputation as a liberal, reform-minded leader. 
 
 Joko Widodo stands firm 
 
 Viewpoints: Are Australia-Indonesia ties at risk? 
 
 Brazil's government later issued a statement saying the execution of Gularte marked "a serious event in the relations between the two countries". 
 
 Gularte's family had said he had schizophrenia and should not have been on death row. 
 
 Gularte was the second Brazilian to be executed for drug smuggling in Indonesia in four months. Marco Archer Cardoso Moreira was killed by firing squad at Nusakambangan in January, prompting Brazil to recall its ambassador. 
 
 Image copyright Reuters Image caption Some of those executed have already been buried 
 
 British drug smuggler Lindsay Sandiford, who is on death row in Indonesia, called the execution of fellow inmates "senseless and brutal". Her lawyer said she could be among the next to be executed. 
 
 But there was delight on Monday for the family of Philippine woman Veloso, after her execution was called off at the last minute following a request by the Philippine president. 
 
 Her mother described the reprieve as a "miracle". 
 
 "We are so happy, I can't believe it. I can't believe my child will live," Celia Veloso told Philippine radio station DZMM. 
 
 Sonny Coloma, a spokesman for the Philippine president, told the BBC he was "relieved and thankful" but stressed "the death sentence on her has not been lifted". 
 
 Image copyright AFP Image caption Veloso's family celebrated the news of her reprieve in Cilacap, close to the prison 
 
 Who were the executed prisoners? 
 
 Australians Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan 
 
 Ghanaian Martin Anderson 
 
 Indonesian Zainal Abidin bin Mgs Mahmud Badarudin 
 
 Nigerians Raheem Agbaje Salami, Sylvester Obiekwe Nwolise, Okwudili Oyatanze 
 
 Brazilian Rodrigo Gularte 
 
 Frenchman Serge Areski Atlaoui and Filipina Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso were spared as they have ongoing appeals 
 
 Jon Donnison: Double standards over Bali Nine 
 
 A Frenchman also convicted of drug offences, Serge Areski Atlaoui, was originally due to be executed with the group but has an appeal outstanding. 
 
 The French government said it "reiterates its opposition to the death sentence, in all cases and all circumstances". 
 
 Indonesia has some of the toughest drug laws in the world and ended a four-year moratorium on executions in 2013. 
 
 It says it takes a hard line because of the country's own drugs problem - 33 Indonesians die every day as a result of drugs, according to Indonesia's National Narcotics Agency. ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Tony Abbott: "Australia deeply, deeply regrets these executions in Indonesia" 
 
 Australia has recalled its ambassador from Indonesia after two Australian men were executed for drug smuggling. 
 
 Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were among eight people from several countries executed by firing squad in the early hours of Wednesday on the prison island of Nusakambangan. 
 
 Brazil's government also expressed its "deep dismay" at the execution of one of its citizens, Rodrigo Gularte. 
 
 But the execution of a Philippine woman was called off at the last minute. 
 
 Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso was spared after Philippines officials said a woman she had accused of planting drugs on her was in police custody. 
 
 How was Mary Jane Veloso spared? 
 
 The families of the condemned prisoners paid them final, emotional visits on Tuesday afternoon before the sentences were carried out. 
 
 All eight refused offers of blindfolds and were singing together in their final moments, a pastor present at the execution told the Sydney Morning Herald. 
 
 Hours after the executions, ambulances left the prison island, taking the prisoners' bodies to their chosen funeral sites in Indonesia or their home countries. 
 
 Image copyright AFP Image caption Andrew Chan (left) and Myuran Sukumaran were sentenced to death in 2006 
 
 Image copyright AP Image caption Australia said Sukumaran and Chan were reformed characters - Sukumaran painted while in prison, creating this self portrait 
 
 Australia had mounted a lengthy diplomatic campaign to save Chan and Sukumaran, convicted in 2006 of being the ringleaders of a group of Australian heroin traffickers known as the Bali Nine. 
 
 Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said on Tuesday that the executions were "cruel and unnecessary", adding that Chan and Sukumaran had been "fully rehabilitated" while in prison. 
 
 "We respect Indonesia's sovereignty but we do deplore what's been done and this cannot be simply business as usual," he said. 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Footage shows ambulances carrying coffins and candlelit vigils held by activists 
 
 This is the first time Australia has recalled an ambassador from Indonesia, and its first-ever recall over the execution of one of its citizens abroad. 
 
 Indonesian Attorney General Muhammad Prasetyo defended the executions, saying his country was fighting a "war" on drugs. 
 
 Indonesia is an important country to Australia, the BBC's Jon Donnison says, with the two working closely together on asylum seekers and terrorism issues. 
 
 Analysis: Karishma Vaswani, BBC Indonesia editor 
 
 Joko Widodo, Indonesia's president, has publicly declared a war on drugs and said he will refuse all clemency applications from convicted drug traffickers - a stance that could prove legally problematic given that the very point of a presidential clemency is to evaluate each individual on a case-by-case basis. 
 
 But that will be little comfort to the families of the eight people who were executed. 
 
 Indonesia risks souring relations with other nations over its hardline approach, as it has already with Australia, home of two of the smugglers. But Indonesia's new president appears willing to take the risk, even if it means tarnishing his own reputation as a liberal, reform-minded leader. 
 
 Joko Widodo stands firm 
 
 Viewpoints: Are Australia-Indonesia ties at risk? 
 
 Brazil's government later issued a statement saying the execution of Gularte marked "a serious event in the relations between the two countries". 
 
 Gularte's family had said he had schizophrenia and should not have been on death row. 
 
 Gularte was the second Brazilian to be executed for drug smuggling in Indonesia in four months. Marco Archer Cardoso Moreira was killed by firing squad at Nusakambangan in January, prompting Brazil to recall its ambassador. 
 
 Image copyright Reuters Image caption Some of those executed have already been buried 
 
 British drug smuggler Lindsay Sandiford, who is on death row in Indonesia, called the execution of fellow inmates "senseless and brutal". Her lawyer said she could be among the next to be executed. 
 
 But there was delight on Monday for the family of Philippine woman Veloso, after her execution was called off at the last minute following a request by the Philippine president. 
 
 Her mother described the reprieve as a "miracle". 
 
 "We are so happy, I can't believe it. I can't believe my child will live," Celia Veloso told Philippine radio station DZMM. 
 
 Sonny Coloma, a spokesman for the Philippine president, told the BBC he was "relieved and thankful" but stressed "the death sentence on her has not been lifted". 
 
 Image copyright AFP Image caption Veloso's family celebrated the news of her reprieve in Cilacap, close to the prison 
 
 Who were the executed prisoners? 
 
 Australians Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan 
 
 Ghanaian Martin Anderson 
 
 Indonesian Zainal Abidin bin Mgs Mahmud Badarudin 
 
 Nigerians Raheem Agbaje Salami, Sylvester Obiekwe Nwolise, Okwudili Oyatanze 
 
 Brazilian Rodrigo Gularte 
 
 Frenchman Serge Areski Atlaoui and Filipina Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso were spared as they have ongoing appeals 
 
 Jon Donnison: Double standards over Bali Nine 
 
 A Frenchman also convicted of drug offences, Serge Areski Atlaoui, was originally due to be executed with the group but has an appeal outstanding. 
 
 The French government said it "reiterates its opposition to the death sentence, in all cases and all circumstances". 
 
 Indonesia has some of the toughest drug laws in the world and ended a four-year moratorium on executions in 2013. 
 
 It says it takes a hard line because of the country's own drugs problem - 33 Indonesians die every day as a result of drugs, according to Indonesia's National Narcotics Agency.
– The pleas for mercy weren't enough, apparently. Despite uproar from several foreign governments, Indonesia is readying for the executions of eight foreigners and one local man convicted of drug trafficking. A dozen ambulances—nine of which were carrying coffins—boarded a ferry to Besi prison on Nusakambangan Island today, while inmates' family members made what are now considered last visits, the AP reports. One relative described the goodbye as "torture," while another collapsed in agony, reports the BBC. Though it was believed Frenchman Serge Atlaoui would be executed, Indonesia's AG says an outstanding appeal will save his life for now. It isn't clear when the executions will occur, but protocol suggests the inmates could be shot by a firing squad just after midnight local time. Some in Australia, including actor Guy Pearce, have criticized Prime Minister Tony Abbott for failing to visit Indonesia and bring home its two nationals, Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, who were caught trying to smuggle heroin out of the country in 2005. Chan married his Indonesian Christian pastor yesterday. "Clearly if traveling to Indonesia would make a difference, we would have gone there," Australia's foreign minister says, adding "while they are still alive, there is still hope." The BBC reports Indonesia indicated it would not stay the two inmates' executions despite a corruption investigation into the case. Meanwhile, a friend of Sukumaran says the inmate will choose not to be blindfolded before 12 gunmen, three of whom will have live rounds, reports the Guardian. "Myuran always said to me that he would never take this lying down; that he would stare them down, that no one would cover his eyes, that he would face it with dignity."