INDONESIAN government on Thursday carried
out executions of fourteen persons convicted on drug trafficking, including six
Nigerians and eight other foreigners, according to local television reports.
The Nigerians were Obinna Nwajagu,
Ozias Sibanda, Michael Titus Igweh, Humphrey Ejike ,Eugene Ape and Okonkwo
Nonso Kingsly who claimed Sierra Leonean nationality in his passport. The other
convicts were Frederik Luttar (Zimbabwe), and Seck Osmane (Senegal)...
Also in the foreigner’s list were
West Zulfiqar Ali (Pakistan), Merry Utami (Indonesia), Freddy Budiman
(Indonesia), Pujo Lestari (Indonesia), Agus Hadi (Indonesia), Gudrip Singh
(India).
The convicts were shot by firing
squad at the Nusa Kambangan penal island shortly after midnight on Friday local
time (1700 GMT on Thursday) amid pouring rain, according to TV reports.
The executions were the third set
carried out since President Joko Widodo took office in October 2014 and Widodo’s
two-year-old administration will have executed more people than were executed
in the previous decade.
According to official data, fourteen
were put to death last year. But one prisoner, a woman from the Philippines,
was spared the death penalty at the last minute.
It was also reported that Widodo
refused appeals for clemency from relatives of the convicts and ignored calls from
the international community to halt the executions.
The European Union and the UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights had called on Indonesia for a moratorium on
capital sentences, but to no avail.
However, the Indonesian government
maintained its position that death penalty is irreversible for narcotics-related
crimes due its negative implications particularly to young people.
No comments:
Post a Comment