Indonesia : Indonesia executed four drug traffickers on Friday and said it had not yet decided when 10 others convicted of drug crimes would be put to death.
Deputy Attorney-General
Noor Rachmad said one Indonesian and three Nigerians were executed by
firing squad not long after midnight local time.
The government had said
earlier in the week that 14 people on death row, mostly foreigners,
would be executed on the Nusa Kambangan prison island.
Those executed Friday
were Indonesian Freddy Budiman and Nigerians Seck Osmane, Michael Titus
and Humphrey Jefferson. The bodies of Osmane and Titus will be flown to
their home country and Jefferson will be buried in Indonesia.
Relatives, rights
groups and foreign governments had urged Indonesia to spare all 14 lives
but it was unclear whether that had any influence on the decision to
not carry out all the executions at once. Lawyers and rights groups had
raised serious doubts about the legitimacy of the conviction of
Jefferson as well as the convictions of an Indonesian woman and a
Pakistani man.
It was the third set of
executions under President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo who was elected in 2014
and campaigned on promises to improve human rights in Indonesia.
“It was not a pleasant
thing but it was to implement the law,” said Rachmad. “The executions
are only aimed at halting drug crimes.”
He said a decision about other executions would be announced at a later time.
A convoy of 17
ambulances, most carrying coffins, had arrived Thursday morning at the
port town nearest Nusa Kambangan. Officials began tightening security at
the prison several days ago, with more than 1,000 police sent to
Cilacap, the port town, and the island.
Last year, Indonesia executed 14 people convicted of drug crimes, mostly foreigners, sparking an international outcry.
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