A court appeal to spare Australian’s Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumara from execution has been adjourned because the Indonesian President Joko Widodo did not have legal representation.

Lawyers for the Bali Nine duo appeared in the State Administrative Court in Jakarta on Thursday, in the hope of securing a full hearing designed to force the president to reconsider their request for clemency.

However the appeal has been deferred because the lawyer representing the president does not have sufficient legal authorisation.

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Reports say the legal representative for Indonesian President Joko Widodo doesn’t have a signed letter authorising him to act for president.

Thursday’s hearing was meant to allow lawyers for the pair to make their case, and the president’s representative the chance to respond.

The appeal has been adjourned until March 19.

Australian death row inmates Sukumaran and Chan when they arrived to Cilacap, Indonesia. Photo: ABC

Chan and Sukumaran are in quarantine cells on Nusakambangan, but have had two family visits since being moved there from Bali last Wednesday.

Their Sydney families remain in the nearest port of Cilacap, still with no idea when the executions might happen.

The adjournments come after Sukumaran’s brother, Chintu, was interviewed on Indonesian television, which has largely been on the side of the government.

He said he was willing to see his brother spend the rest of his life behind bars if it meant he was allowed to stay alive.

“He committed a crime and he deserves to be punished, and the family is sorry for that,” he told the TV station.

“We accept that he must be punished, we just don’t want him to be executed. We want him to stay in prison and continue to help people.

“We don’t ask that he goes free, we just ask that he stay in prison and be allowed to continue to help people.”

The Federal Government has offered to pay the cost of life imprisonment in Indonesia for Chan and Sukumaran should their lives be spared by Mr Widodo.

It has been revealed Foreign Minister Julie Bishop wrote to her Indonesian counterpart a week ago making the offer, should Australia’s other requests for clemency or a prisoner swap be rejected.

Australia’s grand mufti embarks on mercy mission

The Federal Government has offered to pay the cost of life imprisonment in Indonesia for Chan and Sukumaran should their lives be spared. Photo: AAP

Meanwhile, Australia’s highest Islamic cleric has travelled to Jakarta to make a personal plea for mercy.

Ibrahim Abu Mohamed, the Grand Mufti of Australia, said he wanted to see Chan and Sukumaran spared and travelled to Indonesia with three senior Australian sheikhs to deliver the message.

“We offer no criticism of the justice system in recent cases. However we note that mercy and forgiveness lies at the heart of Islam for those who repent and have reformed their ways,” Dr Amin Hadi said.

“We urge that the heritage of mercy in our religion is fully and deeply considered in the application of state law.”

Indonesia’s religious affairs minister, Lukman Hakim Saifuddi, said he welcomed the visit but noted the divide between religious forgiveness and Indonesian law.

“So if the approach is religion, of course all of us have to forgive, but when it comes to the formal legal approach, this kind of approach cannot intervene in the law,” he said.