Australia steps up pressure

Myuran Sukumaran. File photo / AP

Bishop harnesses coalition of opponents to death penalty as Bali bribery claims aired.

Indonesia ignored Australian Government requests to delay execution notices for Bali Nine drug smugglers Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan until after Anzac Day.

Despite the representations, Jakarta handed the pair their notices on Australia's "national day of remembrance", Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said. "I'm very disappointed that it proceeded in this way."

Bribery claims around the death sentences of Sukumaran and Chan must be investigated, their lawyer is arguing.

Muhammad Rifan, the lawyer who represented the Bali Nine pair when they were sentenced to death, has told Fairfax Media judges asked for more than A$130,000 ($133,000) for a lighter sentence.

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop. Photo / Richard Robinson

The men's current lawyer, Todung Mulya Lubis, says claims the men face execution within hours because of a corrupt system must urgently be investigated. "I know that we are counting the hours," Lubis told reporters at Cilacap before visiting the Australians.

Bishop signalled a joint international effort on stopping the executions was likely and has been gathering a coalition of opponents to the death penalty. "I have spoken to a number of counterpart foreign ministers overseas, particularly those whose citizens are in a similar position, and they likewise are seeking clemency for their nationals."

News Corp reported that a mortician in Bali has been instructed to inscribe the names and the date, April 29, on the crosses that will mark the pairs' graves.

Bishop says she contacted her Indonesian counterpart Retno Marsudi. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott had also written to Indonesian President Joko Widodo on their behalf. "This is not in the best interests of Indonesia," he said.

Three Nigerian men, four men from Brazil, France, Ghana and Indonesia, and a Filipino woman are also to be executed.

- AAP