Ban recalled that under global law, the death penalty should be used for the most serious crimes and said “drug crimes are generally not considered to meet this threshold”.
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Those executed Friday were Indonesian Freddy Budiman and Nigerians Seck Osmane, Michael Titus and Humphrey Jefferson.
In fact, despite its draconian approach to drug smuggling and trafficking, Indonesia had executed relatively few prisoners in recent years, reports the New York Times, “despite having dozens of convicts on death row”.
The sister of a Pakistani convicted of drug crimes has appealed the Indonesian government to spare the life of her ailing brother who is expected to be executed by a firing squad along with 12 others in the next 48 hours.
The Community Legal Aid Institute, which advocates for the convicts, said “those facing execution are six Nigerians, four Indonesians, two Zimbabweans, one Indian and one Pakistani”.
On those who have been given a temporary reprieve, Rachmad said the government hadn’t decided when the other executions will take place.
It was the third set of executions under President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.
Australia has held a firm stance against the death penalty in Indonesia since the executions of Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukamaran previous year.
Amnesty International estimates several thousand people are executed in China each year.
“Such death sentences are unlawful and tantamount to an arbitrary execution as they are undertaken in contravention of Indonesia’s worldwide human rights obligations”, the United Nations said in a statement on Thursday.
He said since execution was stopped late midnight, Pakistan Embassy would contact the Indonesian Foreign Office and the Law Ministry for further details in the morning.
Relatives, rights groups and foreign governments had urged Indonesia to spare the lives of the 14.
The Jakarta Post said the paper had been printed before it learned that only four convicts, not 14, were shot by firing squad.
The lawyer of Pakistani prisoner Zulfikar Ali told Al Jazeera’s Step Vaessen that his client was not among those who had reportedly been executed. Questions remain but for now the families of 10 drug convicts can breathe a sigh of relief, at least for one more day.
“We will maintain our commitment, our firmness and our consistency”, Attorney General H. Muhammad Prasetyo told Reuters.
The death penalty is widely accepted by the Indonesian public, but police had to break up a protest outside the prison on Thursday by members of a migrant workers group who called for mercy for the Indonesian woman who was scheduled to be executed.
“I can say that the four executed inmates had important roles either as kingpin, supplier, distributor, providers, and producer as well as importer and even acted as exporters of the drugs, ” said Mr Prasetyo.
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“Their families were given until 3pm today to visit them so it is likely that the executions would be carried out tonight”.
