JAKARTA (REUTERS/AFP) - Indonesia's attorney-general spokesman said the execution of up to 11 convicts, including two Australian drug smugglers, will definitely not be this week, but he is not sure if it will take place this month.
"It definitely won't happen this week. This month - I can't be sure yet," attorney-general spokesman Tony Spontana told reporters on Friday.
Two Australian drug convicts Andrew Chan, 31, and Myuran Sukumaran, 33, ringleaders of the so-called "Bali Nine" drug trafficking gang, were arrested in 2005 after being caught using seven couriers to try to smuggle more than 8kg of heroin from Bali to Australia. They recently lost their appeals for presidential clemency over their death sentences, typically the final chance to avoid the firing squad.
Australia on Thursday proposed a prisoner swop in an 11th-hour bid to save them, but it was rejected by Jakarta which said the men had "poisoned our nation".
Australia has formally complained to Indonesia over the treatment of the two men, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said on Friday.
Australia was dismayed at the photographs and the level of security used to transport the men from Bali to the execution island of Nusakambangan in central Java on Wednesday. Dozens of armed police were deployed.
One picture taken on board the plane shows Denpasar police chief commissioner Djoko Hari Utom smiling and with his hand on the back of Chan, who was seated. Another photo shows him placing his hand on the shoulder of Sukumaran, who is looking up at him.
"I thought they were unbecoming and showed a lack of respect and dignity and we have protested to the Indonesian ambassador here in Canberra," AFP quoted Mr Abbott as saying.
The police chief commissioner told Fairfax Media that the photos were not a "selfie moment" and that he was simply trying to raise morale.
The Australians were taken to Nusakambangan along with eight others from countries like France, Brazil and the Philippines.
Besides Australia, Brazil and France have also piled pressure on Jakarta, with Paris summoning Indonesia's envoy and the Brazilian president refusing to accept the credentials of the new Indonesian ambassador.
