INDONESIA has executed Nigerian drug smuggler Daniel Enemuo and five others in defiance of international pleas that they be pardoned as the government stood to its ground and implemented its Draconian anti-narcotics laws.
Mr Enemuo, 38, who was originally convicted in 2004, is among the first batch of people to be executed under new President Joko Widodo. Apart from Mr Enemuo, the other five convicts are all also foreigners from Malawi, Vietnam, the Netherlands and Brazil and their governments had put pressure on the Indonesian government to commute the sentences.
President Widodo, who took office in late October, signed off on the executions last month, declining pleas for clemency despite appeals from the European Union and Amnesty International among others. Following the executions a diplomatic spat has begun with Brazil and the Netherlands condemning the execution of their citizens.
Indonesia has tough anti-drugs laws and President Widodo has disappointed human rights activists by voicing strong support for capital punishment despite his image as a reformist. A spokesman for Brazil's president Dilma Roussef said she was distressed and outraged after Indonesia defied her repeated pleas and executed Brazilian Marco Archer Cardoso Moreira.
Dutch foreign minister Bert Koenders said the Netherlands had temporarily recalled its ambassador to Indonesia over the execution of Dutchman Ang Kiem Soei. He described all six deaths as terribly sad.
Mr Koenders added: “My heart goes out to their families, for whom this marks a dramatic end to years of uncertainty. 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 on the matter. All the prisoners, who had been sentenced to death between 2000 and 2011, were executed around the same time shortly after midnight, according to the Indonesian attorney general’s office.
Vietnamese woman Tran Thi Bich Hanh was executed in the Boyolali district of central Java, while the five others were put to death on Nusakambangan Island, home to a high-security prison, off the south coast of the archipelago’s main island of Java. They included an Indonesian woman, Rani Andriani, along with 53-year-old Brazilian Moreira and 62-year-old Dutchman Ang.
Mr Enemuo and Namaona Denis, from Malawi, were also executed. They were all caught attempting to smuggle drugs apart from the Dutchman, who was sentenced to death for operating a huge factory producing ecstasy.
Jakarta halted capital punishment in 2008 but resumed executions again in 2013. There were no executions in Indonesia last year.
President 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, had his clemency appeal rejected last month and the authorities say he will be executed with his accomplice Andrew Chan, as they committed their crime together.
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