INDONESIA: Indonesia to execute Indian drug trafficker, 5 murder convicts

Indonesia will soon execute an Indian drug trafficker and 5 murder convicts, an official said Friday.

The Indian, Ayodhya Prasad Chaubey, was sentenced to death in 1994 for smuggling 12.3 kilograms (27 pounds) of heroin into Indonesia, said Andi Syarifuddin, a spokesman for the Attorney General's Office.

The other five, all Indonesians, were convicted of murder. They were identified as Suryadi Swabuana, Sumiarsih, Djais Adi Prayitno, Sungeng and Jurit bin Abdullah.

 President Megawati Sukarnoputri has rejected the six convicts' appeals for clemency and the Attorney General's Office received a presidential decree on the refusal on Wednesday. 

Officials had earlier identified all 6 as drug traffickers. "There's no more legal avenue for them. We will certainly carry out the executions. It's only a matter of time," Syarifuddin told AFP.

 He did not say when the executions would take place but said it would be soon.

 Human rights group Amnesty International appealed Thursday to Indonesia to spare the lives of the 6 and urged its members to write to Megawati seeking clemency.

 Amnesty opposes the death penalty in all cases, partly due to the risk of error. It noted that the Indonesian Human Rights Commission had expressed concern about corruption and low professional standards in the Indonesian judiciary.

 But Syarifuddin said: "Our law allows the death penalty. We are only implementing what's written in the law."

 16 people are now on death row for drug trafficking -- 11 foreigners, 4 Indonesians and a Dutch citizen of Chinese-Indonesian origin. No figures are available for murderers awaiting execution.

 Use of the death penalty is rare in Indonesia, where the last execution was carried out in May 2001 of 2 men convicted of a murder in 1989. It was the 1st execution for 5 years.

 A police firing squad enforces the penalty.

INDONESIA:Indonesia to execute 6 drug traffickers on death row Indonesia will soon execute 6 people who are among 16 convicted drug trafficers on death row, reports said Wednesday. The decision to have the 6 convicts face a firing squad came after President Megawati Sukarnoputri refused to pardon them and ordered a speedy execution. "We will execute them soon after we settle administrative matters. It's about time," Attorney General's Office spokesman Andi Syarifuddin was quoted by the Jakarta Post as saying. Syarifuddin said the office needed to secure a written letter from the president ordering the execution.

 He did not name the the convicts but said the 16 people on death row were made up of four Nigerians, 2 Thais, a Pakistani, a Zimbabwean, a Nepalese, a Malawian, a Dutch citizen of Chinese-Indonesian origin, an Angolan and four Indonesians.Use of the death penalty is rare in Indonesia, where the last execution was carried out in May 2001 against 2 men convicted of a murder in 1989.

 It was the 1st execution for 5 years. The last execution of a drug trafficker was carried out in 1994 against a Malaysian, who was shot by a 12-member firing squad. Justice Minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra announced on Monday that Megawati had refused to pardon the 6 unnamed convicts and that she wanted a speedy execution. Indonesian courts have increasingly been handing out severe sentences, including death, for drug smugglers.

 The influential Kompas daily on Wednesday urged that the execution be carried out as soon as possible and supported Megawati's decision to reject the six convicts' appeal for clemency. "The Attorney General's Office should not hesitate to carry out the court decisions," Kompas said in an editorial "To eliminate drug abuse, there is no other choice but to attack the center of the business itself. We have to impose severe punishment on drug traffickers."