The inmates include convicted drug smugglers Merry Utami, an Indonesian, and Zulkifar Ali, a Pakistani national, who were moved to Batu Prison in Nusakambangan Island recently and were reportedly among those scheduled to be executed.
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“Ali, a citizen of a fellow Muslim country, will be executed by firing squad if the Pakistan government does not act now, swiftly”, it said. “Many prisoners on death row simply do not know who will be plucked out and shot”, president Julian McMahaon said in a statement on its website, reprieve.org.au.
Indonesia says it plans to execute several people on Friday as part of its campaign against drug trafficking.
Nationals from Pakistan, Nigeria and Zimbabwe are expected to be put to death alongside Indonesians soon, but officials say no Europeans or Australians will face the firing squad in the third round of executions under President Joko Widodo.
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A Filipina, Mary Jane Veloso, who was pulled from the last executions will not be included in the upcoming round as a legal process related to her case is ongoing in the Philippines, said the attorney-general’s spokesman Mohammad Rum.
Indonesia last carried out executions in April 2015 when it put to death seven foreign drug convicts, including two Australians, sparking anger from global allies and the United Nations.
Rights groups have expressed concern that Ali was tortured into confessing to possession of heroin and did not receive a fair trial.
A Pakistani death row convict was sent Monday to Nusakambangan prison island, where Jakarta conducts executions, and an Indonesian woman sentenced to death for narcotics offenses was transferred to the island over the weekend.
However, President Joko Widodo has ignored diplomatic pressure and promised to act more aggressively in the war against drugs, in what is among Southeast Asia’s largest markets for drugs.
Indonesia executed 14 drug convicts, mostly foreigners, in two batches a year ago.
Ali, 52, was arrested in November 2004 in connection with a 300-gram heroine case in Jakarta.
Ali’s family has also been notified, he said.
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A 2011 Amnesty International report said Jeff, as he is known, did not have access to a lawyer at the time of his arrest, interrogation or detention. For three days, he was kicked, punched and threatened with death by the Soekarno-Hatta Airport district police until he was forced to sign a self-incriminating confession. “And even though his confession was coerced, as Ali recalled in detail during the trial, the judge allowed it to be used as evidence”.
