Photo: The Gurdian
The Indonesian government served a notice to nine foreigners and a local citizen convicting them of drug trafficking and peddling and that their executions would be carried out soon, ignoring mass appeals by the U.N. chief and foreign leaders to spare them.
Authorities and other officials probing into the matter also asked the four Nigerian men, two Australian men, a Filipino woman, and one man each from France, Brazil and Indonesia itself for their last wish, the spokesman for the attorney general, Tony Spontana, stated in a press statement on Sunday. Legal options and other refuge provided to the nine of them have been exhausted, while Frenchman Serge Atlaoui still has an outstanding legal complaint over the procedure, following his request. Spontana said he expects the Supreme Court to rule on it Monday.
The notice of 72-hours states that the executions would be carried out by the firing squad in Besi prison on Nusakambangan Island at the earliest, either on Tuesday or Wednesday. Meanwhile, the pending executions have caused an uproar and international outcry, particularly in Australia, France and the Philippines, which are opposed to the execution penalty, with the heads of the states and other people demanding a cancellation or show of ‘mercy’ for the same.
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo of Indonesia to “urgently consider declaring a moratorium on capital punishment in Indonesia, with a view toward abolition.”
The south-eastern country has extremely strict laws and code of conduct related to drugs and it’s peddling, and has often executed smugglers. More than 130 people are on death sentence, mostly for drug and other related crimes, with one-third of them are foreigners.
In the month of January alone, six convicted drug smugglers, including five from the nations of Brazil, the Netherlands, Vietnam, Nigeria and Malawi, were executed at the same prison, prompting the Netherlands and Brazil to recall their ambassadors, as a mark of protest against the ‘inhumane’ act.
Tags: drug peddlers execution Indonesia
