Indonesia rejects appeal for Bali 9 prisoners from Australia

An Indonesian court rejected on Monday a last-ditch challenge by two Australian drug convicts facing execution by firing squad, but lawyers for the state and defence were divided over whether legal avenues remained for them to avoid the death penalty.

Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were convicted in 2006 as the ringleaders of a plot to smuggle heroin out of Indonesia.

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They had both challenged the Jakarta administrative court's decision not to hear an appeal against President Joko Widodo's refusal to grant them clemency.

"There is no more legal recourse," Novarida, head of the state lawyers team, told reporters after the verdicts were delivered drily in a court packed with lawyers and journalists.

However, the lawyer for the two men said they would take their case to the constitutional court.

"They have the right to live, and the state attorney knows that [the law] allows them to defend their lives," Leonard Arpan told reporters.

The Australian pair are among 10 drug convicts due to be executed by firing squad on the prison island of Nusakambangan. Others in the group include citizens of France, Brazil, the Philippines, Ghana, Nigeria and Indonesia.

Widodo denied clemency to the convicts despite repeated pleas from Australia, Brazil and France.