An Indonesian firing squad executed eight drug traffickers, including seven foreigners, in the early hours yesterday, sparking condemnation from Australia and Brazil who had made final, desperate pleas to save their nationals.
The mass execution cements the hard line on enforcing the death penalty adopted by Indonesian President Joko Widodo as part of his war on drugs, an approach criticized by the UN as applying double-standards.
Four Nigerians, two Australians, a Brazilian and an Indonesian were executed in a forest clearing near the prison, as family members held a candle-light vigil within earshot of the firing range.
Photo: EPA
“All eight were executed at the same second at 0035 hours,” Indonesian Attorney General H.M. Prasetyo told reporters in Calicap, off the prison island of Nusakambangan in central Java.
A ninth prisoner, Mary Jane Veloso from the Philippines, was spared at the last minute, apparently as part of a deal between Jakarta and Manila to seek more information and go after drug syndicates operating in the region.
Australia said it was recalling its ambassador to Jakarta, a step already taken by Brazil over the execution of another prisoner in January.
“We respect Indonesia’s sovereignty, but we do deplore what’s been done and this cannot be simply business as usual,” Prime Minister Tony Abbott told reporters in Canberra. “I want to stress that this is a very important relationship between Australia and Indonesia, but it has suffered as a result of what’s been done over the last few hours.”
The Brazilian government said in a statement it was shocked by the news, which marked the second execution of a Brazilian in Indonesia in three months, despite Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s personal humanitarian appeals.
Brazil’s foreign ministry said it was evaluating ties with Jakarta before deciding what action to take.
Indonesia shrugged off Australia’s diplomatic response.
“It is just for a while, a month or two, to signify protest,” Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla told reporters in Jakarta.
Widodo’s steadfastness on the executions, which has strong public support at home, stands in contrast to a series of policy flip-flops since he took office six months ago.
Charlie Burrows, religious counsellor to the Brazilian convict who was with the prisoners before their execution, said all eight had refused blindfolds before they were shot.
Their families lit candles as they watched the procession of cars taking the prisoners to the execution site, the Sydney Morning Herald reported, adding many became hysterical when gunshots rang out a short time later.
“The good thing is all prisoners were executed together while praying and singing. Before that they hugged each other, saying goodbye,” said Christina Widiantarti, a lawyer for the Brazilian convict and a witness to the execution.
In Geneva, UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville criticized Jakarta’s use of the death penalty.
“Indonesia appeals for clemency when its own nationals face execution in other countries, so it is incomprehensible why it absolutely refuses to grant clemency for lesser crimes on its own territory,” he said.
In Manila, Jose Rene Almendras, secretary to the Philippine Cabinet, told reporters that the case against Veloso took a dramatic turn just hours before her scheduled execution when a woman involved in the affair, who reportedly asked her to carry drugs, turned herself into the police in the Philippines.
Veloso has always maintained an international human trafficking and drug gang tricked her into taking 2.6kg of heroin to Indonesia from Malaysia five years ago.
However, her death sentence remains, with Indonesia’s attorney-general putting the onus on the Philippine government to prove she was a mere human trafficking victim.
Almendras said the two countries had a common interest in going after the bigger syndicates.
“I think both sides, both legal sides, have decided let’s pursue this legal angle of not just hitting a mere courier and trying to go to the bigger root of the problem,” he said.
Additional reporting by AFP
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