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Indonesia executes mother, son and shaman killers

An Indonesian mother-and-son who murdered five people for revenge and a self-described shaman who killed eight were executed by firing squad overnight, an official said yesterday.

Tubagus Yusuf Maulana, alias Usep, was killed at 10:30pm on Friday in Banten on the western end of Java Island, Attorney General Office (AGO) spokesman Bonaventura Nainggolan said.

Sumiarsih and her son, Sugeng, were shot at 1:10am near Surabaya City in eastern Java, the spokesman said.

Maulana was found guilty last year of leading of a gang that lured credulous villagers with supernatural promises of wealth into paying him thousands of dollars. The villagers were tricked into drinking a poison-laced potion and dumped into mass graves.

“His last requests were, first, that he wanted to be with his family in the last week. Second, he asked not to be treated like a prisoner and have his hands tied. Third, he wanted to be executed on a Thursday or Friday,” Nainggolan said.

Sumiarsih and her son, Sugeng, were found guilty in 1989 of the premeditated murder of five members of a single family in Surabaya, East Java Province, the previous year.

The murders were an act of revenge over a business dispute.

The bodies of all three prisoners were returned to their families early yesterday for burial, Nainggolan said.

Indonesia has seen a string of capital punishments in recent months, which started with the execution of two nationals from the African nation of Nigeria last month on drug charges.

Earlier this month Indonesia also executed another self-described shaman, Ahmad Suraji, who strangled 42 women and drank their saliva to increase his black magic powers.

AGO spokesman Nainggolan denied the rash of executions was part of a concerted campaign to deter crime in the archipelago.

“We’ve been carrying out the decisions of the courts,” he said.

Executions in Indonesia are by firing squad, usually carried out at night in isolated and undisclosed locations. The prisoner is notified at least 72 hours in advance.
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