“I find it deeply disturbing that Indonesia has already executed 19 people since 2013, making it the most prolific executioner in Southeast Asia”, he said. Family members say they have been told the convicts will be executed on Thursday night, according to a lawyer and diplomat – who were angry as it was earlier than they thought was allowed. Petitions to review their cases had been denied.
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The bodies of Osmane and Titus will be flown to their home country and Jefferson will be buried in Indonesia.
There were claims a number of prisoners had received unfair trials and some had allegedly been tortured to confess. “Racism towards our client can be seen in the court decision”.
Indonesia’s prosecutors have always stressed that only death row convicts who have exhausted all legal avenues are put on the execution list.
The attorney general’s office, which oversees executions, could not be reached for comment. “The injustice already done can not be reversed, but there is still hope that it won’t be compounded”, said Rafendi Djamin, Amnesty International’s director for South East Asia and the Pacific.
It is not known exactly which convicts were executed, but the make-up of the group includes four Indonesians and 10 others from South Africa, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Pakistan and India.
It was the third set of executions under President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.
Ahead of the planned executions, the European Union (EU) called on Indonesia to stop all executions and join a global community which does not use the death penalty.
The Indonesian government said the death penalty is necessary for narcotics-related crimes because the country was facing a drugs epidemic, particularly affecting young people. Indonesia executed four people convicted of drug crimes on Friday despit.
The Indonesian prison gave the criminals just 72 hours notice of their impending executions.
“There is no evidence to support President Widodo’s position”, said Amnesty’s Josef Benedict.
Habibie also called for a moratorium on the death penalty.
The four Indonesians originally slated for executions were former migrant worker Merri Utami, drug kingpin Freddy Budiman, Agus Hadi and Pujo Lestari.
The Tide learnt that the families of the six Nigerians and eight others on death row in Indonesia were granted last visits, yesterday, as their executions loomed, a lawyer said. But one prisoner, a woman from the Philippines, was spared the death penalty at the last minute. Indonesia apparently acceded to appeals to wait for a pending case against Veloso’s alleged human traffickers in the Philippines. “Now I have tears of happiness in my eyes”, she said.
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Friday’s executions, which happened at 12:45 am (1745 GMT Thursday), came after a day of frenetic activity, with distraught relatives travelling to Nusakambangan island to say farewells to their loved ones and ambulances carrying coffins over to the heavily guarded penal colony.
