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Martin Anderson, the Ghanaian convicted of drug offenses in Indonesia, and eight others, is to face execution by firing squad in less than 72 hours.

Martin Anderson, also known as Belo, was convicted of possession of 50 grams of heroin in Jakarta in November 2003. The South Jakarta District Court sentenced him to death in June 2004.

The other eight are Silvester Obiekwe and Raheem Agbaje Salami (Nigerians), Zainal Abidin (Indonesian), Rodrigo Gularte (Brazilian) and Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso (Filipino), Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran (Australians) and Serge Atlaoui (French).

The execution was delayed following an appeal from the Australian government for the release of their two citizens. But they lost an appeal for the State Administrative Court to hear their case.

The BBC reports that on Monday evening, Indonesia's attorney general confirmed that the nine death row convicts would be executed as planned, without giving an indication of when the executions would likely to take place. 

Under Indonesian law, convicts must be given 72 hours' notice of execution. This means the executions by the firing squad could be carried out as early as Tuesday.