Bali's chief prosecutor says Bali nine duo Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran will be transferred to "execution island" on Wednesday or Thursday, revising an estimate he had provided earlier in the day.
Momock Bambang Samiarso made the remark as he headed to a meeting with police on Tuesday to finalise arrangements for the transportation of the Australian drug smugglers.
"Tomorrow or the day after," Mr Momock said, when asked about the timing. "i can't tell you more until the meeting is completed."
The comments revise his remarks earlier on Tuesday that it will "hopefully" happen in the next 48 hours. "Hopefully, it will happen today or tomorrow," he said then.
Now, the timeframe has been pushed back a day.
Earlier, he said it would "definitely" occur this week following orders from Indonesian Attorney-General H. M. Prasetyo. Previous comments on the timing of the transfer have proved wrong, as delays to the plans have been frequent.
Meanwhile, the governor of Kerobokan Prison, Sudjonggo, said he was unaware of when the Australians will be moved to Nusakambangan, the island-cum-prison complex where the pair are due to be executed.
He spoke after two Indonesian air force Sukhoi jets flew over Kerobokan in an apparent show of force by the military.
Mr Prasetyo said on Monday that legal appeals pending for Chan and Sukumaran would not have any impact on the executions. Because the drug smuggling duo had their clemency appeals rejected by Indonesian President Joko Widodo, he said, these later appeals were irrelevant.
Lawyers for Chan and Sukumaran reacted angrily to the remarks, saying Mr Prasetyo was not respecting the rule of law in the country and would bring international condemnation upon Indonesia by rushing through the executions.
Mr Prasetyo revealed that prisons on Nusakambangan have requested that the Bali nine duo not spend too much time in isolation on the island.
Stating - as he did on Monday - that preparations were 95 per cent complete for the execution of 10 drug felons, Mr Prasetyo said an evaluation of the first batch of executions this year had shown there were things that needed to be improved.
The execution of six drug felons on January 18 was hampered by weather problems, journalists masquerading as fishermen to try and access the island and confusion over the religion of those condemned.
"We will immediately carry out the executions when the preparation is completed," Mr Prasetyo said on Tuesday. "The principle is that once they are there they should not wait too long in their cell."
There were also still prisoners who needed to be transported from Madiun and Yogyakarta. "After the evacuation we will determine the time of the execution," Mr Prasetyo said. He confirmed that Chan and Sukumaran would be transferred to Cilacap, the port near Nusakambangan, by plane.
One of those scheduled to die, Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso from the Philippines, is having her legal appeal heard today in Yogyakarta.
Officials involved in the execution are scheduled to visit Cilacap on Wednesday.
Hendra Eka Putra, the head of Pasir Putih Prison on Nusakambangan, said the meeting would include police, gravediggers, the coffin maker, spiritual leaders, prison authorities and local government officials.
Information from that meeting will be conveyed to the Attorney-General's office, which will then send officials to visit the prison compound. "So in my opinion it still takes sometime for the execution to take place," Mr Hendra said on Sunday.
"Having said this it is the Attorney-General's office that decides everything . . . I don't think it will take place soon."
Six of the eight other drug felons slated to be killed alongside the Australians are already at Nusakambangan for the mass execution featuring 120 police sharpshooters - 12 for each victim.
Silvester Obiekwe, a Nigerian heroin trafficker who angered authorities by continuing to run a drug syndicate while behind bars, was transferred there on Thursday.
