AN AUSTRALIAN bishop has called on the Indonesian government to show mercy to two Australians sentenced to death for the part that they played as ringleaders of a drug-running group known as the Bali Nine.

The Rt Revd Philip Huggins, a regional bishop in Melbourne, made the plea as the Indonesian Attorney-General, H. M. Prasetyo, confirmed that Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran would be in the next group of prisoners to be executed by firing squad. This comes despite the men's lawyers' lodging an application for a second judicial review of their sentence. An earlier review was unsuccessful.

The plight of the two men, who have been in jail for almost ten years, has been headline news in the Australia since their appeals for clemency were rejected.

"The Indonesian authorities have obviously facilitated, by all accounts, the remarkable rehabilitation of the two Australian former drug-traffickers," Bishop Huggins said. "Their own response to opportunities for rehabilitation further underscores the cruel folly of execution."