Bali 9: Australian priest says executed Brazilian Rodrigo Muxfeldt Gularte 'unaware what was happening'

The Brazilian executed in Indonesia for drug trafficking did not understand what was happening to him until his final moments, a priest assigned as his spiritual adviser told Australia's ABC radio on Thursday 30 April.

Rodrigo Muxfeldt Gularte, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, was among eight people convicted of drug offences from several countries who were executed.

Brazil had made repeated personal pleas for Indonesia to commute his sentence on humanitarian grounds, citing his mental illness.

Father Charlie Burrows, a local priest who accompanied Gularte in his final hours, told ABC he thought he had prepared the Brazilian for the execution.

"I thought I'd got him ready, that he was going to be put in chains, because he didn't like being touched ... I said to him, well I'm 72, when you get up to heaven you'll know where I'm going to live, prepare a garden or something," Burrows said.

Gularte was calm as he was handcuffed by warders but became agitated when he was handed over to police outside the jail who put leg chains on him, Burrows said.

"I thought he'd got the message he was to be executed but ... when the chains started to go on, he said to me, 'Oh father, am I being executed?'," Burrows said.

Burrows, who witnessed the execution of another Brazilian prisoner in January, said Gularte continued to hear voices in his final days telling him everything would be fine.

"He believes the voices more than he does anybody else," he said.

Gularte was caught entering Indonesia in 2004 with six kilograms of cocaine hidden in surf boards, and was sentenced to death in 2005.