An
Indonesian police car leads ambulances carrying five bodies of prisoners
out of Wijayapura port as they arrived from Nusakambangan Island prison
complex, after their execution under the death row for drug
trafficking. EPA BAYU NUR
Indonesia’s new government executed six people, including five foreigners, by firing squad Sunday, despite appeals from foreign leaders to soften the country’s narcotics laws and grant clemency to the prisoners.
Four men from Brazil, Malawi, Nigeria, and the
Netherlands, and an Indonesian woman were shot in pairs just after
midnight Saturday in a prison on Nusakambangan island. The sixth person,
a woman from Vietnam, was shot to death in Boyolali in central Java, the Associated Press reported.
Indonesia unofficially stopped the execution of drug offenders in 2008, but they resumed in 2013, Agence France-Presse reported. Although, there were no executions in 2014.President Joko Widodo, who took office in October, stated that he would not grant clemency to 64 inmates on death row sentenced to drug-related crimes.
“There is no pardon for this matter,” President Widodo said at a press conference on Dec. 10. “I think we are aware that Indonesia is in a state of emergency due to drugs.”
An
ambulance carrying the coffin of Marco Archer Cardoso of Brazil arrives
from Nusakambangan Island prison complex at Wijayapura port, after his
execution under the death row for drug trafficking. EPA BAYU NUR
Brazil and the Netherlands recalled their ambassadors from Indonesia’s capital Jakarta, after the country denied last-minute appeals to spare their citizens.
A spokesperson for Brazilian President Dilma
Rousseff said she was “distressed and outraged” after Indonesia put to
death Marco Archer Cardoso Moreira, who was convicted of attempting to
smuggle cocaine into Jakarta in 2004.
“Using the death penalty, which is increasingly rejected by the
international community, seriously affects relations between our
countries,” the spokesman said in a statement.Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders said the Netherlands was “terribly sad” about all six deaths, including the execution of Dutchman Ang Kiem Soei, who was sentenced to death for operating a factory that produced Ecstasy.
“My heart goes out to their families, for whom this marks a dramatic end to years of uncertainty,” Koenders said. “The Netherlands remains opposed to the death penalty.”
