Court rejects appeal by Australian drug smugglers

An Indonesian court dismissed on Monday the latest appeal by two Australian drug smugglers facing imminent execution, taking them a step closer to the firing squad.

The State Administrative Court in Jakarta said it did not have the authority to hear the challenge to President Joko Widodo's decision to reject their mercy pleas, upholding its own ruling handed down in February.

Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, the ringleaders of the so-called "Bali Nine" drug trafficking gang, were sentenced to death in 2006 for trying to smuggle heroin out of Indonesia.