Brazil and the Netherlands recalled their
ambassadors from Indonesia and expressed fury
Sunday after Jakarta defied their pleas and
executed two of their citizens along with four
other drug offenders.
The other convicts to face a firing squad were
from Vietnam, Malawi, Nigeria and Indonesia. The
six were the first people executed under new
President Joko Widodo.
Indonesia has tough anti-drugs laws and Widodo,
who took office in October, has disappointed
rights activists by voicing support for capital
punishment despite his image as a reformist.
He defended the executions, saying drugs ruin
lives.
A spokesman for Brazilian President Dilma
Roussef said she was “distressed and outraged”
after Indonesia ignored her last-ditch pleas and
put to death Marco Archer Cardoso Moreira, who
was convicted of smuggling cocaine into
Indonesia in 2004.
“Using the death penalty, which is increasingly
rejected by the international community, seriously
affects relations between our countries,” the
spokesman said in a statement.
The Brazilian ambassador to Jakarta was being
recalled for consultations, the spokesman added.
Meanwhile Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders
said the Netherlands had also recalled its
ambassador over the execution of Dutchman Ang
Kiem Soei, and in a statement described all six
deaths as “terribly sad”.
“My heart goes out to their families, for whom
this marks a dramatic end to years of
uncertainty,” Koenders said. “The Netherlands
remains opposed to the death penalty.”
Dutch King Willem-Alexander and Prime Minister
Mark Rutte had been in contact with the
Indonesian president about the matter, he said,
and the government had done “all in its power” to
try to halt the execution.
– In line with law –
Widodo on Sunday defended the death penalty in
a Facebook post.
“The war against the drug mafia should not be
half-hearted measures, because drugs have really
ruined the good life of the drug users and their
families,” he said.
“There is no happiness in life to be gained from
drug abuse. The country must be present and
fight with drug syndicates head-on,” he added.
“A healthy Indonesia is Indonesia without drugs.”
All the prisoners, who had been sentenced to
death between 2000 and 2011, were executed
shortly after midnight, the attorney general’s
office said.
The 53-year-old Brazilian, who was caught with
drugs stashed in the frame of his paraglider at
Jakarta airport, and the 62-year-old Dutchman
were executed on Nusakambangan Island, home
to a high-security prison, off the main island of
Java.
A Nigerian, Daniel Enemuo; Namaona Denis, from
Malawi; and an Indonesian woman, Rani Andriani,
were executed at the same location.
The sixth convict, Vietnamese woman Tran Thi
Bich Hanh, was executed in the Boyolali district in
central Java.
They were all caught attempting to smuggle
narcotics apart from the Dutchman, who was
sentenced to death for operating a huge factory
producing the drug ecstasy.
All had their appeals to the president for
clemency rejected last month.
Jakarta had an unofficial moratorium on
executions for several years from 2008 but
resumed capital punishment again in 2013. There
were no executions last year.
Widodo, known as Jokowi, has taken a
particularly hard line towards people on death row
for narcotics offences, insisting they will not
receive a presidential pardon since Indonesia is
facing an “emergency” over drug use.
Following Sunday’s executions, the number of
people on death row for drugs-related offences
stood at 60, around half of whom are foreigners,
said a spokesman for the national narcotics
agency.
Widodo’s tough stance has sparked concern for
other foreigners sentenced to death, particularly
two Australians who were part of the “Bali Nine”
group caught trying to smuggle heroin out of
Indonesia in 2005.
One of the pair, Myuran Sukumaran, also had his
clemency appeal rejected last month but
authorities say he will be executed with fellow
Australian Andrew Chan as they committed their
crime together.
Chan is still awaiting the outcome of his
clemency appeal.
Also on death row is British grandmother Lindsay
Sandiford. She was sentenced to death in 2013
after being caught trying to smuggle cocaine into
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