Diplomats, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, and human rights groups called on Indonesia to halt the planned executions when the 72 hour notice was given, but their pleas fell on deaf ears.
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(AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary). Family members and relatives of Zulfikar Ali, who is convicted of drug crimes, demand his release during a protest outside the Provincial assembly, in Lahore, Pakistan, Wednesday, July 27, 2016.
In Pakistan, dozens of Zulfikar Ali’s relatives distributed candies to well-wishers outside the family’s home in the eastern city of Lahore to express relief and joy over his life being spared. Baneer reads “mercy, mercy”.
He did not say why 10 other drug convicts, who had been expected to face the firing squad, were not executed, although the island where the convicts were being put to death was hit by a major storm as the executions took place.
Rights groups have mounted a campaign to save her, and 10 women’s rights activists were detained by police Thursday in Cilacap – the port city closest to the prison island – as they rallied in support of her.
A total of 14 people were due to be executed this week, the government announced Thursday, 10 of which were non-Indonesians.
Indonesia carried out the execution early Friday of four people convicted for drug offenses, an official said, despite objections from the worldwide community over capital punishment.
Four inmates – three Nigerians and one Indonesian – were put to death just after midnight.
The Indonesian authorities yesterday said that 14 prisoners, including the citizens of India, Pakistan and Zimbabwe, would be executed this weekend.
Friday’s executions were the third under Widodo since he took office in 2014. “But the government is saying it has something to do with legal issues”. “They all have been given chances at all stages”.
The Tangerang Court awarded him capital punishment in February 2005 against the prosecutors’ request for 20 years imprisonment. “Michael is not alone”. Then a telephone call came from Ali’s wife in Indonesia.
“My brother is innocent and he was wrongly implicated in the drug case”. “I want to see my brother alive”, she sobbed. Pakistani Zulfiqar Ali, however, was not among those executed.
They were killed by firing squad after they were convicted for trafficking drugs, according to officials of the Indonesian government.
‘We ask for justice to the government of honourable (President Joko Widodo) Jokowi. His 2-year-old administration will have executed more people than were executed in the previous decade.
“But so far, we can’t confirm this officially”, Vaessen, who is reporting from Jakarta, said.
“When this process in not respected, that means that this is no longer a country that upholds the law, nor human rights”, he said.
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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”.
