Bali Nine families mobbed ahead of Indonesia executions

The families of two Australian drug smugglers due to be executed in Indonesia have been mobbed by reporters as they arrived for prison visits.

Police had to shield relatives of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran from a crowd as they walked part of the way to a jail on Nusakambangan Island.

Sukumaran's sister collapsed and had to be carried.

Chan and Sukumaran, along with seven others, could be executed at the jail by firing squad on Tuesday night.

They were formally notified on Saturday that they would be executed. Under Indonesian law, criminals must be given 72 hours notice.

Another convicted drug trafficker - a French national - is appealing against his conviction.

'Tough times'

On Tuesday, there was a media scramble as the families of the two Australians walked from the Cilacap port towards the prison - for what could be their last meeting with the prisoners.

Andrew Chan's mother Helen (right) broke down in tears as she arrived on the Nusakambangan island

Chan's mother, Helen, was seen breaking down in tears after arriving on the island.

Other family members were screaming "Mercy!" as they approached the prison.

On Monday, Chan married his girlfriend Febyanti Herewila, in what his brother, Michael, said was "an enjoyable moment".

"It's tough times, but happy times at the same time," he added, pleading again with Indonesian President Joko Widodo to show "some mercy".

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop earlier urged Indonesia to delay the execution of its two nationals until a corruption investigation into their case was complete.

But Indonesia's attorney general later confirmed that the nine death row convicts would be executed as planned, without giving an indication of when the executions would be likely to take place.

Attorney General HM Prasetyo told the BBC a judicial review "could not amend [a] previous court ruling" and that "foreigners do not have any legal standing for a judicial review on the Constitutional Court".

Claims that the Indonesian judges in the trial had asked for bribes for lighter sentences first surfaced earlier this year.One of the judges involved in the case denied there had been political interference or negotiations about bribes.

Andrew Chan (left) and Myuran Sukumaran were sentenced to death in 2006

"I can assure you there was none," the judge told Fairfax Media. "We protected ourselves from everybody. It was purely our decision."

Chan and Sukumaran, along with seven other Australians, were arrested in Bali in 2005 for trying to smuggle more than 18lb (8.3kg) of heroin from Indonesia to Australia.

The pair were later found to be the ringleaders of the group and sentenced to death. The other seven members of the "Bali Nine" are currently serving either life or 20 years in prison.

Indonesia has some of the toughest drug laws in the world and ended a four-year moratorium on executions in 2013.