Authorities are supposed to give those on death row 72-hour notice of the date.
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Those calls have gone unheeded and President Joko Widodo has said drugs pose as serious a threat as terrorism in what is one of Southeast Asia’s biggest markets for narcotics.
Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir, however, defended the executions, saying death penalty does not violate any global laws and it is still “a positive law in Indonesia”.
After receiving confirmation of the executions, Amnesty International issued a statement calling them “deplorable”.
At least two prisoners among that group of 10, a Pakistani national and an Indonesian woman, have applied for presidential clemency, their representatives said.
Veloso’s sister told CNN that family are allowed to visit in the days before the execution, but afterward, the only confirmation they get the sentence has been carried out is the sound of gunfire in the distance.
Earlier this week, it was announced that there were to be 14 prisoners executed in this latest round, but Rachmad said authorities have yet to decide on the fate of 10 others now on death row, comprising citizens of India, Pakistan, and Zimbabwe.
An activist lights candles arranged around a poster containing the names of death row inmates who are facing imminent executions.
“At this stage, we can only say that we are extremely disappointed with the fact that Jeff was executed”, said Raynov Tumorang by text message.
According to official procedure, death row prisoners are taken to a field to be executed and blindfolded, unless he or she does not wish to be. The gap between nations that want to embrace more progressive harm reduction policies and those who want to maintain focus on criminalization of drugs became clear at that gathering.
The government has declared a drug emergency and has vowed to continue with executions in efforts to quickly eliminate drug trafficking and its impact on youths.
Manto, a newspaper seller, also agreed with the death penalty.
Among the people executed was an Indian, Gurdip Singh, who wrote to his family on Thursday morning even as the Indian government was trying to save his life.
The latest executions did not attract the same level of media attention overseas but the European Union, U.N. Human Rights Office, Australian government and others continued to speak out against Indonesia’s use of the death penalty. Founder of the Virgin Group Richard Branson, for example, called on the president to halt executions.
“Not only Jokowi but Indonesia will be respected by the world if we uphold the death penalty properly”.
“The death penalty does not deter crime”.
He said, “It is a pathetic thing to see fellow citizens being killed overseas for drug-related offences”. “Capital punishment has always had much more to do with flexing state power than it does with crime control or prevention”. There have been claims by a number of prisoners that they received unfair trials and were tortured to confess.
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Those convicted are said to be from Nigeria, Pakistan, India and Zimbabwe and Indonesians and had been isolated at a prison island where the executions are carried out.
