Indonesian authorities transferred 20 inmates in death row and those serving life sentence from a prison in the Jakarta suburb of Tangerang to the maximum security prison on Nusa Kembangan island off Central Java early Saturday.

Blindfolded inmates were escorted to two special buses with red or green ribbon tied in their arms -- red for inmates in death row and green for life-imprisoned convicts, reported the national Antara news agency.

They were chained in the legs and cuffed in the hands, it said.

An armored vehicle and about 100 armed policemen were deployed in the process.

Officials have refused to comment on the major transfer.

The district court in Tangerang has sentenced more people to death than any other courts in the country. Most of the condemned inmates were convicted of drug smuggling through the Soekarno Hatta International Airport which is under the Tangerang jurisdiction.

Source: Xinhua