"Let's not forget that a few years ago when Indonesia was struck by the Indian Ocean tsunami, Australia sent $1 billion worth of assistance, we sent a significant contingent of our armed forces to help in Indonesia with humanitarian relief and Australians lost their lives in that campaign to help Indonesia," Abbott said as quoted by local media.
Abbott urged Indonesia to "reciprocate" for the financial aid Australia provided to Indonesia and emphasized that the prospects of capital punishment of two Australian citizens was horrific.
"I am sick in my stomach at the thought of what may happen to these two unfortunate young Australians in a very short space of time if the Indonesian government does not treat our representations on their behalf with the same respect that it respects its representations on behalf of its citizens on death row to be treated," Abbott said.
Australian citizens Myuran Sukumaran, 33, and Andrew Chan, 31, two members of the so-called Bali Nine, were convicted in 2005 for plotting to smuggle heroin from Indonesia to Australia.
On Tuesday, Indonesian authorities announced that the inmates would not be spared despite the repeated appeals from Australian senior officials for complacency.
In 2013, Indonesia resumed execution of sentence for drug-related crimes after a five-year break. Drug-trafficking, production and possession of psychotropic drugs and narcotics are severely punished in Indonesia. Drug dealers are facing capital punishment, carried out by a firing squad.
