Jakarta executes Indonesian, 3 Nigerians

CILACAP – Indonesia executed four people convicted of drug crimes yesterday despite international protests and said it would decide later when as many as 10 others who got an unexpected reprieve are put to death.

One Indonesian and three Nigerians were executed by firing squad not long after midnight local time as torrential rains hit the Nusa Kambangan prison island where the death row inmates were held.

The government had said earlier in the week that 14 people on death row, mostly foreigners, would be executed for drug crimes. Those executed were Indonesian Freddy Budiman and Nigerians Seck Osmane, Michael Titus and Humphrey Jefferson.

Relatives, rights groups and foreign governments had urged Indonesia to spare all 14 lives but it was unclear whether that had any influence on the decision to not carry out all the executions at once.

Lawyers and rights groups had raised serious doubts about the legitimacy of the conviction of Jefferson, who had been in prison for more than a decade, as well as the convictions of an Indonesian woman Merri Utami and a Pakistani man Zulfikar Ali.

Ricky Gunawan, a lawyer from Community Legal Aid Institute who represented Jefferson and Utami, said the government’s unpredictable handling of the process was “tantamount to torture.” He had not been able to speak with Utami since the four executions were announced and nor had her appointed spiritual adviser, a Catholic priest.

“She has been in an isolation cell for three days and on the last day she had a very sad farewell with her family members,” he said. “Then apparently she is not executed.”

It was the third set of executions under President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, who was elected in 2014 and campaigned on promises to improve human rights in Indonesia. Last year, Jokowi’s government executed 14 people convicted of drug crimes, mostly foreigners, sparking a huge outcry abroad, and particularly in Australia, which had two citizens among those condemned.

The latest executions did not attract the same level of media attention abroad but the European Union, UN Human Rights Office, Australian government and others continued to speak out against Indonesia’s use of the death penalty. Indonesia says it is facing a drug abuse epidemic and that putting drug traffickers to death will act as a deterrent.

At the Saint Carolus Hospital funeral home in Jakarta where the body of the 42-year-old Osmane was taken, his younger brother Edu Osmane struggled to understand why 13 years in prison wasn’t sufficient punishment.

“His last wish was to be given the opportunity to obtain legal rights like other inmates on death row, the clemency,” said Osmane after viewing his brother’s body. “He had filed it as I know, but why he’s still executed, I don’t understand.”

In Pakistan, dozens of Zulfikar Ali’s relatives distributed sweets to well-wishers outside the family’s home in the eastern city of Lahore to express relief and joy over his life being spared.

“We were trembling with fear and we were in state of anxiety and depression,” said his sister Sajida Bibi. Then a telephone call came from Ali’s wife in Indonesia. “Now I have tears of happiness in my eyes,” she said.

Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said Ali’s execution “has been stopped for now” following diplomatic contacts between Pakistan and Indonesia.