A touching tribute from a famous friend of the Bali Nine ringleaders.
Australian artist Ben Quilty has posted a haunting message on Facebook for Indonesian President Joko Widodo just hours before his friends are to be executed.
The Archibald Prize winner has been an outspoken advocate for mercy since befriending the duo on death row.
Joko Widodo tonight you will kill two good men, my friends. I want you to know that you may take their freedom and their lives, you may rob their fellow inmates of the support and love that both men have offered for so long, you can turn off Myu’s imagination but you will never kill the memory of them. I have promised Myu and Andrew, their parents and their siblings, that I will fight against the death penalty for the rest of my life.
I can also assure you that Myu and Andrew will care for the other inmates you will execute tonight. The six men and one young woman from the Philippines, Ghana, Brazil and Nigeria will have two constant, calming and compassionate voices beside them right until the last second. Myuran will continue to translate your executioner’s words into English for Mary Jane Veloso and Andrew will calm and console. I know that before the sound of your guns the island will hear the comforting whisper of Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan.
Over three years, Quilty visited them in their Indonesian prison and became an artistic mentor and friend to Myuran Sukumaran and a friend to Andrew Chan.
Related: Rolling coverage: The latest news on the Bali Nine duo.
Posting the message on his Facebook page in both English and Indonesian, Quilty vows to devote his life to fighting against the death penalty.
“I know that before the sound of your guns the island will hear the comforting whisper of Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan,” he wrote.
“You may take their freedom and their lives…you will never kill the memory of them.”
See more of Sukumaran’s work:
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