TWO Nigerian drug traffickers were handcuffed to poles in Indonesia early yesterday morning and shot by firing squads.
It followed announcements that drug executions would be expedited, alarming lawyers for three Australians on death row.
Colin McDonald, lawyer for a Bali heroin courier, Scott Rush, said he would travel to Jakarta next week to formulate new moves to overturn his client's death sentence.
The executions of Hansen Anthony Nwaolisa and Samuel Iwuchukwu Okoye near their prison in Central Java were a grim reminder of the urgency of the convicted Australians' plight, Mr McDonald said.
The Nigerians are the first drug offenders to be executed in Indonesia in four years, following a call from Attorney-General Hendarman Supandji and police chief General Sutanto to speed up executions as a warning to those involved in the drug trade.
Central Java police mobile brigade chief Colonel Dicky Atotoy said the two Nigerians, caught smuggling heroin in 2001, were blessed by two priests before being executed. "They were handcuffed to poles, standing side by side and shot by two sniper squads," he said.
"The two were confirmed dead by doctors about 10 minutes after they were executed by firing squad teams."
Mr Supandji said the other 60 drug offenders on death row could expect their cases to be expedited. "They are all still in the process and will be accelerated according to existing regulations."
Rush and alleged Bali nine ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran failed in a constitutional challenge to Indonesia's death penalty last year.
They still have the option of seeking a judicial review of their death sentences, and are appealing to the President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, for clemency. Dr Yudhoyono has previously indicated he would not pardon drug traffickers.
This week, inmates of the prison rioted against the pending executions of the men, which appears to have hardened the resolve of authorities to carry out more death sentences.
General Sutanto said that drug traffickers must be executed immediately "to give them a lesson".
"With a quick trial and execution process, it will give a deterrent effect to the perpetrators, and perpetrators to be," he said.