Indonesia: Foreigners Executed By Firing Squad

Taken from Sky-News, 18/01/2015


Indonesian authorities reject last-minute international pleas to have death sentences for five foreign drug convicts commuted.

Six people, including five foreign nationals, have been executed by firing squad in Indonesia after they were convicted on drug charges.

The foreigners, from Brazil, the Netherlands, Vietnam, Malawi and Nigeria, were executed shortly midnight, authorities said, despite international appeals.

The sixth, an Indonesian women identified as Rani Andriani, was also killed.

"The execution of the six convicts has been carried out," spokesman for the attorney general's office, Tony Spontana, told news agency AFP.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff had issued a last-minute plea to Indonesian authorities to spare former pilot Marco Moreira.

It was rejected by Indonesian President Joko Widodo who said the judicial proceedings had followed Indonesian law.

The Dutch government had issued a similar appeal for its citizen Ang Kiem Soei.

Clemency appeals for the pair, as well as Namaona Denis of Malawi, Daniel Enemuo of Nigeria, and female convict Tran Thi Bich Hanh of Vietnam were rejected in December.

All six had been sentenced on drug charges from 2000 to 2011.

"What we do is merely aimed at protecting our nation from the danger of drugs," Attorney General Muhammad Prasetyo told reporters on Thursday.

"There is no excuse for drug dealers, and hopefully this will have a deterrent effect."

Five of the convicts were killed on Nusakambangan Island, off the south coast of the Indonesian island of Java.

The sixth was killed in Java's Boyolali district.

They were the first executions carried out since President Widodo took office in October.

At least 138 people are on death row in Indonesia, mostly for drug offences.

Roughly a third of them are foreigners.



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The same content from ABC News,


Indonesia executes six drug convicts as new president Joko Widodo takes a hard line on drugs


Indonesia has executed six people convicted on drug offences in the first executions carried out under new president Joko Widodo.

The two women and four men killed by firing squad included five foreigners from Brazil, the Netherlands, Vietnam, Malawi and Nigeria.

Two Australians - Myuran Sukamaran and Andrew Chan - remain on death row for their roles in the so-called Bali Nine's attempt to traffic heroin into Australia.

Sukamaran has already been denied a presidential pardon.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has appealed directly to Mr Widodo to show mercy on the two Australians.

Indonesia has tough anti-drugs laws and Mr Widodo, who took office in October, has disappointed rights activists by voicing strong support for capital punishment despite his image as a reformist.

The European Union had urged Jakarta not to go ahead with the executions, with foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini calling the plan "deeply regrettable".

Amnesty International condemned the move as "seriously regressive and a very sad day.

"The new administration has taken office on the back of promises to make human rights a priority, but the execution of six people flies in the face of these commitments," Rupert Abbott, Amnesty International's research director for South East Asia and the Pacific, said.

A spokesman for the attorney-general's office, Tony Spontana, said all the prisoners were executed around the same time, shortly after midnight.

They were sentenced to death between 2000 and 2011.

Vietnamese woman Tran Thi Bich Hanh was executed in Boyolali district in central Java, while five others were put to death on Nusakambangan Island, home to a high-security prison, off the south coast of the archipelago's main island of Java.

They included an Indonesian woman, Rani Andriani, along with 53-year-old Brazilian Marco Archer Cardoso Moreira and 62-year-old Dutchman Ang Kiem Soei.

A Nigerian, Daniel Enemuo, and Namaona Denis, from Malawi, were also executed.

No presidential pardons under Widodo's hard-line stance

All those executed were caught attempting to smuggle drugs apart from the Dutchman, who was sentenced to death for operating a huge factory producing ecstasy.

Last month Mr Widodo rejected their appeals for clemency, their last chance to avoid the firing squad.

Jakarta stopped capital punishment in 2008 but resumed executions again in 2013. There were no executions in Indonesia last year.

Mr Widodo has taken a particularly hard line towards people on death row for narcotics offences, insisting they will not receive a presidential pardon as Indonesia is facing an "emergency" due to high levels of drug use.

His tough stance has sparked concern for other foreigners sentenced to death, particularly Sukumaran and Chan, who were convicted in 2006.

Sukumaran also had his clemency appeal rejected last month, but the pair's lawyer, Julian McMahon, said that if Chan's clemency application could be deferred - perhaps indefinitely - Sukumaran may also be spared because of the requirement under Indonesian law that prisoners who commit a crime together be executed together.

Mr Abbott called on the Indonesian government to stop plans for future executions after authorities had detailed that 20 were scheduled for this year.

Before the executions, the EU's Mr Mogherini tried to ramp up pressure on Jakarta, describing the death penalty as "a cruel and inhumane punishment, which fails to act as a deterrent and represents an unacceptable denial of human dignity and integrity".

Dutch foreign affairs spokesman Friso Wijnen last week insisted the Netherlands would "go to the highest levels" to prevent Ang being put to death.

Brazil's president Dilma Rousseff was "distressed and outraged" after Indonesia defied her repeated pleas and executed Moreira, a spokesman said Saturday.



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