Indonesian President Joko Widodo says the execution of Bali Nine pair Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran will not occur this week, an Al Jazeera journalist has reported.

Correspondent Step Vaessan said Mr Widodo made the comments to her following an interview on Wednesday afternoon.

The Indonesian leader, who has refused to backdown from the decision to execute the men, reportedly told Vaessan no executions would take place on the island of Nusakambangan this week.

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Speaking on the network, Mr Widodo said he would not discriminate between people of different countries, with Chan and Sukumaran due to be executed with eight other drug felons.

“I think the decision (to execute Chan and Sukumaran) was already taken by the court,” Mr Widodo said.

“I looked at how many drugs they were carrying, how many kilograms they distributed.”

President Jokowi told me no executions this week at sidelines of interview i had with him this afternoon. For mote watch Aljazeera

— step vaessen (@stepvaessen) March 4, 2015

On Thursday morning, federal MPs in Canberra held a sober candlelight vigil for the men, and called for Mr Widodo to show mercy and reconsider the men’s penalty.

Show of strength during transfer

Australian drug smugglers Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran have been placed in isolation cells in Central Java while they wait for news about the timing of their executions.

Chan and Sukumaran finished their journey to the port of Cilacap shortly before 9am (local time), after being taken out of Bali’s Kerobokan prison in a police armoured vehicle before dawn this morning.

The men did not say a word as they were taken out of Bali’s Kerobokan prison in police armoured vehicles known as barracudas before dawn on Wednesday morning.

The men were then taken off the plane in Java and driven to Cilacap, where they were put on a ferry for the short journey to the Nusakambangan island prison, where they are due to be executed.

Their transfer, in paramilitary vehicles with a helicopter overhead and elite guards, was a relative show of strength compared to the third prisoner transferred on Wednesday – an Indonesian drug trafficker who came in a little van.

An announcement on the timing of the executions could be made within hours or days, but Indonesian attorney-general Muhammad Prasetyo is required to give them 72 hours’ notice.

The saddest photo I’ve seen this week. #Bali9 pic.twitter.com/eaXMkNEptm

— Daniel Sankey (@Daniel_Sankey) March 3, 2015

Mr Prasetyo told local reporters that several things were still being organised and his office was always checking on progress in the field.

The attorney-general said the process would be carried through properly and not rushed, and that was why no execution date had been set.

Mr Prasetyo said some of those on the list to be executed were yet to be moved to Nusakambangan.

Komang Gede Tri Utama Aria, of Bali Provincial Law and Human Rights Office, said prison guards entered the men’s cells to remove them.

“When they were picked up from cells, they didn’t seem tense, they were relaxed,” he said.

“There was no fighting.”

Ferry carrying prisoners in armoured truck arrives on Nusakambangan island. Photo: ABC

The pair are among a group of 11 prisoners slated to be executed on Nusakambangan.

Nyoman Putra Surya, Head of the Corrections Division at Bali Provincial Law and Human Rights Office said the men thanked authorities for their care while they were in Bali.

“They were ready,” he said.

“They even said thank you.”

Just minutes before they left their Bali prison on Wednesday morning Chan’s brother Michael turned up at the gates and attempted to be allowed inside, but he was denied access.

Mr Nyoman defended the decision.

“Yesterday, we gave all day,” he said.

“Today was not visiting time.

“We gave the maximum chances last week.

“Myuran has said to his mother, he has promised that his sister and mother would meet him, in Cilacap. Tomorrow his mother will go to Cilacap.”

Lawyers for Chan and Sukumaran are still attempting a legal appeal, but the Indonesian government is effectively ignoring that, saying nothing can stop the executions.

‘Frankly, we’re revolted’

Ahead of the removal of the prisoners, Mr Abbott said millions of Australians were sickened by the developments.

“We abhor drug crime but we abhor the death penalty as well, which we think is beneath a country such as Indonesia,” he told ABC radio on Wednesday.

More than 100 police were stationed outside the prison before the men were removed in an armoured vehicle. Photo: AAP

“We frankly are revolted by the prospect of these executions.”

Mr Abbott doesn’t want to hold out false hope of a last-minute reprieve for the two men.

“There were some suggestions earlier that perhaps at least some people in the Indonesian system were having second thoughts,” he said.

But those signals seem to be “dissipating”.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said she was dismayed at news of the transfer and indicated there would be fallout if Indonesian authorities pushed ahead with the planned executions.

“I am dismayed by these reports that preparations are being made for their executions,” Ms Bishop told Network Seven on Wednesday.

She said she is not aware of any specific date or timing of the proposed executions.

She reiterated calls for President Joko to show mercy to the Bali Nine ringleaders.

“I would argue that mercy and forgiveness has as big a place in Indonesian legal concepts as it does in Australia,” Ms Bishop said.

The government had not received any official information about transfer, she told Network Nine.

Ms Bishop said she planned to speak to the families of the two men later on Wednesday.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says she won’t give up on the pair. Photo: Getty

Lawyer Peter Morrissey said the Australians were now going through a “very serious” process of dealing with the news they might be at the end of their lives.

Chan and Sukumaran were handling it, he said: “But they don’t have much choice”.

“It’s not like somebody who has an injury before a football game or something like that where they say I’m devastated,” he told ABC Television on Wednesday.

“They’re coming to terms with that and trying to make sure their community around them and families are with them, supporting them and not too upset.

“It’s a very raw time for them.”

Ms Bishop said she would continue talking to Indonesian authorities.

“I won’t give up making representations. I will continue to contact my counterpart ministers. I have spoken to the vice president. I have personally spoken to the vice president and also to the foreign minister on numerous occasions,” Ms Bishop told the Seven Network.

She described the situation as “appalling”, saying the men had been rehabilitated.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said Australia should not give up hope for Chan and Sukumaran.

“We don’t ask that these men be forgiven, or freed, but we do ask that they don’t be executed,” he told reporters in Canberra.

– with AAP and ABC