From Suleiman Idris, with agency reports
A Nigerian, Daniel Enemuo, a Malawian, Namaona Denis, a former Brazilian pilot Marco Moreira alongside a Dutch citizen Ang Kiem Soei, Vietnam Tran Thi Bich Hanh and Indonesia Rani Andriani executed by the Indonesian authority over drug related offences has sparked global outrage with the Brazilian and Dutch government recalling their Ambassadors to the Asian country.
The government of Netherland and Brazil had appealled to the Indonesia government for clemency but the country’s President Joko Widodo last December rejected any plea insisting the execution by firing squad was carried out early Sunday morning in the Nusakambangan Island Prison Complex.
The federal government is yet to react to the execution of Daniel who has been in prison for over 12 years in Indonesia on drug charges before his execution.
Reports said a last-minute personal appeal by Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff to spare her countryman, Marco Moreira, and the Dutch government for its citizen, Ang Kiem Soei could not convince Indonesia President while the Attorney General Office’s spokesman Tony Spontana said such plea “will not change or delay the execution”.
The Nigerian alongside his accomplices were charged in 2000 to 2011, and sentenced to death, they were moved to isolation cells on Saturday where the execution spots were prepared at the Nusakambangan island prison.
“What we do is merely aimed at protecting our nation from the danger of drugs,” Attorney General Muhammad Prasetyo told reporters Thursday. “There is no excuse for drug dealers, and hopefully this will have a deterrent effect.”
He said that Widodo refused Rousseff’s appeal by telephone to spare Moreira. The president told Rousseff that he could not commute the sentence because all judicial proceedings had followed Indonesian law and Moreira had been granted due process, Prasetyo said.
He said that the executions would not disturb Indonesia’s ties with those countries.
Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders told reporters Friday that Kiem Soei, who previously had his nationality declared unclear by the Indonesian government, is a Dutch citizen. He said the government in The Hague was doing all it could to prevent his execution.
“We are working on all channels – international and to the highest level, we are trying to prevent it,” Koenders told Dutch broadcaster NOS.
Koenders said the Netherlands was in contact with other countries whose nationals face execution.
Amnesty International said the executions would be a setback to the new Indonesian government’s promise of improving respect for human rights.
Indonesia has extremely strict drug laws and often executes smugglers. More than 138 people are on death row, mostly for drug crimes. About a third of them are foreigners.
