Those awaiting executions include three Indonesians, a Pakistani, an Indian, one Zimbabwean and four other Nigerians.
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Muhammad Rum, spokesman for Indonesia’s attorney general, told reporters outside the Nusakambangan prison that authorities have not decided when 10 other prisoners will be executed by firing squad, CNN reported.
Questions swirled about the handling of the process, with the 10 prisoners who escaped being killed – including from India, Pakistan and Zimbabwe – spared at the last minute without explanation.
In preparation for the executions, a convoy of 17 ambulances, most carrying coffins, had arrived Thursday morning at the port town nearest Nusa Kambangan and were ferried to the island.
“The increasing use of the death penalty in Indonesia is terribly worrying, and I urge the Government to immediately end this practice which is unjust and incompatible with human rights”, High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said in a statement.
Indonesia came under further worldwide pressure on Thursday to halt the execution of 14 with the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the European Union both calling on Indonesian President Joko Widodo to declare a moratorium on the death penalty.
Another of their clients, Indonesian woman Merry Utami, however, did not face the firing squad.
The first was Pakistani Zulfiqar Ali, whom rights groups say was beaten into confessing to the crime of heroin possession, leading to his 2005 death sentence.
Rachmad insisted that prosecutors had considered the four convicts’ cases in depth before the executions, concluding their crimes had been grave and caused serious damage to others.
The TV stations later updated this to suggest some executions may not have gone ahead, but it was not until the spiritual advisers returned from the killing fields two hours later that the families learned who had been saved.
Several civil society activists joined relatives and family member of Zulfiqar at Faisal Chowk on the Mall road late Wednesday night where they staged a sit-in. They also demanded the worldwide community to intervene into the situation and save the lives of prisoners.
Groups of protesters staged demonstrations as they watched the bodies of those executed being transported for burial.
“My brother is not a drug smuggler”.
Support for the death penalty in Indonesia is generally high but there has been some public opposition. “Therefore he should be set free”, said a 50-year-old woman while tears were rolling down from her cheeks. It said that Indonesian police used violent duress to obtain a confession from Ali, who was arrested in November 2004.
Another source of criticism is that Indonesia’s justice/legal system is known to be flawed and therefore it easily leads to the execution of innocent people. He said that he has also received some SMS about the execution of the Pakistani national.
“At a time when a majority of the world’s countries have turned their back on this cruel and irreversible punishment, President Jokowi is recklessly hurtling in the wrong direction”, said Djamin.
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Nusakambangan prison is where the drug executions were held.
