Australia offers Indonesia prisoner-swap deal in 11th-hour bid to save drug smugglers

CANBERRA, Australia -- Australia has offered Indonesia a prison swap deal in an 11th hour bid to save the lives of two Australian drug smugglers who have been transferred to an island prison where they are to be killed by firing squad within days.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said on Thursday she made the proposal to her Indonesian counterpart Retno Marsudi who had agreed to convey it to President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo. Bishop said she had yet to hear back.

The Australian newspaper reported Bishop had offered to repatriate three convicted Indonesian drug criminals in return for the lives of the Australians, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran.

The Australians are among nine foreigners who are to be executed soon.

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  Indonesian police stand guard in Cilacap, Central Java, Indonesia as a ferry with Indonesian police armored vehicles carrying two Australian prisoners arrives at Nusakambangan island, seen in the background on March 4, 2015. (AP / Achmad Ibrahim)