The distressing mix-up, and horrific last minutes of Marco Archer Cardoso Moreira, were relayed to Fairfax Media by Cilacap priest Father Charles Burrows, who was supposed to be called upon to comfort the man.

The account comes as the Brazilian government took the extraordinary step of refusing to accept the credentials of Indonesia's new ambassador in protest over its refusal to offer clemency to another of its citizens on death row, Rodrigo Gularte. Indonesia responded by recalling its ambassador-designate.

Moreira was executed on January 18, the last of five drug felons shot by firing squads on Nusakambangan, Indonesia's execution island that sits within sight of Cilacap.

"He had to be dragged from his cell crying and saying 'help me'," said Father Burrows.

"He actually excremented in his trousers".

The guards hosed him down but, says Father Burrows, he continued to weep "all the time up to his last minutes".

Moreira was a Catholic and Father Burrows was supposed to administer the sacrament of reconciliation and penance and the extreme unction. But there was a mixup and Father Burrows was not allowed on the island.

"I kept telling them I wanted to be there. The wardens were very polite but the attorney wouldn't give me a letter to get onto the island. The Brazilian embassy was very upset. They told me nobody went forward to look after him.

"Usually there is a time when the minister or spiritual director gets to go forward to console them. Nobody consoled Marco."

Brazil is also deeply angry about the treatment of Gularte, who is a paranoid schizophrenic, and therefore should be exempt from execution under Indonesian law.

Gularte, 42, has been on death row since 2004 for smuggling six kilos of cocaine into Indonesia in surf boards.

"This is one of the reasons why the clemency should be assessed case by case. There should not be a blanket rejection," said Gularte's Indonesian lawyer Ricco Akbar.

"If it was done case by case, it would be known that Rodrigo was suffering a mental illness. His clemency would not have been rejected in the first place."

Mr Akbar called on the "wise" president of Indonesia, Joko Widodo, to reconsider the case.

Brazil's president Dilma Rousseff said clearance for Indonesia's representative would be delayed while Brasilia and Jakarta remained at loggerheads over Gularte's execution.

The blanket denial of clemency for drug convicts on death row by Mr Joko will be the subject of an appeal to the administrative court on Tuesday by the lawyers for Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, the two Australians on death row in Bali.

Fairfax Media revealed on Thursday that Mr Joko rejected their clemency applications without considering the supporting documentation, which included information on their rehabilitation and efforts to train and counsel hundreds of Indonesian prisoners in Kerobokan jail.

With Mr Joko saying on Friday that he would not bow to international pressure and that there would be no delay in the men's executions, the lawyers for the Australians said they would pursue their case for clemency with unbridled determination.

"There are plenty of reasons why we will never throw in the towel," said Julian McMahon, one of several barristers working on the case.

"We are fighting in court, at this stage the Administrative Court. Our government is working hard on other fronts. There is also an international aspect to this.  Perhaps most importantly, civil society in Jakarta is certainly now very interested.

"It may only be a few days, but may be longer. This extra time might enable the governments to talk more, to look more deeply at all that is going on and see if some better outcome than killing reformed prisoners is an option."