Indonesia yesterday rejected appeals from the UN and EU to halt the execution of 14 drug convicts, including foreigners.
The convicts, including foreigners from Nigeria, Pakistan, India and Zimbabwe, as well as Indonesians, have been placed in isolation on a prison island where Jakarta carries out executions.
Authorities stepped up preparations with ambulances carrying coffins seen crossing over to Nusakambangan Island.
A lawyer and diplomat said family members were angry, saying they had been told the convicts were to be executed last night — earlier than they thought was allowed.
The attorney general’s office, which oversees executions, could not be contacted for comment.
Indonesia last carried out executions in April last year, when it put to death eight drug convicts, including two Australians, sparking international outrage.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo has defended the use of the death penalty to combat rising narcotics use.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein on Wednesday called on Indonesia to end the “unjust” use of the death penalty, while the EU urged Jakarta to stop the “cruel and inhumane punishment, which fails to act as a deterrent.”
Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir defended the looming executions as “pure law enforcement.”
“I need to emphasize that all the legal processes of the convicts have been completed, all their rights have been fulfilled — we target the drug traffickers and not users,” he said.
Jakarta faced accusations of breaking its own laws by apparently planning to hold the executions yesterday.
Diplomats and lawyers say they were given the legally required three days notice of the plan on Tuesday afternoon and believed the earliest it could happen was today.
“I am very concerned — this cannot happen,” said Ricky Gunawan, a lawyer for a Nigerian convict set to face the firing squad.
“It is clearly against the law. This execution has been completely under secrecy from the start,” he said.
Deputy Pakistani Ambassador to Indonesia Syed Zahid Raza said the family of a Pakistani man, Zulfiqar Ali, had been informed he was to be executed last night.
Nasir said the ministry had fulfilled all their obligations by notifying foreign representatives.
Pakistan has been angered about the planned execution of Ali — whom rights groups claim was beaten into confessing — and summoned Indonesia’s ambassador in Islamabad this week to convey its concerns.
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