The latest executions did not attract the same level of media attention overseas but the European Union, United Nations Human Rights Office, Australian government and others continued to speak out against Indonesia’s use of the death penalty.
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An Indonesian English-language newspaper apologised on Friday after it ran a front-page story erroneously declaring that 14 drug convicts had been executed.
Relatives and neighbours of Zulfiqar Ali, who was sentenced to death in Indonesia, protest in Lahore.
“I need to emphasise that all the legal processes of the convicts have been completed, all their rights have been fulfilled – we target the drug traffickers and not users”, he said.
On top of fierce criticism against Indonesia’s stance on capital punishment for drug trafficking, criticism increased on Friday as those ten remaining inmates who were recently moved to Nusa Kambangan island to face the firing squad are seemingly left unknowing about the timing of their executions (generally prisoners are given up to three-days’ notice of their execution).
One local Indonesian man and three Nigerian drug convicts were executed by firing squad at Nusakambangan prison in Indonesia, but 10 peoples lives were spared for now.
Relatives, rights groups and foreign governments had urged Indonesia to spare their lives.
The executions were the third set carried out since President Joko Widodo took office in October 2014. They were put to death shortly after midnight, Noor Rachmad, deputy attorney general for general crimes, told reporters.
Had all 14 people been executed overnight, the former lawyer for the Australian men and anti-death penalty advocate Dr Todung Mulya Lubis said it would have been the largest mass execution in Indonesian history.
The 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.
The executed Indonesian was named as Freddy Budiman, while the three others, Nigerians, were: Seck Osmane, Humphrey Jefferson Ejike Eleweke and Michael Titus Igweh.
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.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said he’s “deeply concerned” by death penalty cases that lack transparency and compliance with the right to a fair trial, including the right to an appeal. “It’s not very clear what actually were the last conclusions why these executions didn’t take place”.
The government of Jokowi’s predecessor did not carry out executions between 2009 and 2012, but resumed them in 2013. Widodo declared a “drug emergency” a year ago, on the grounds that such use reportedly kills around 40-50 people in the country daily.
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Amnesty International condemned the latest executions and said it is a “deplorable act that violated the local and international law”.
