5 Nigerians Face Execution In Indonesia
Amnesty International, a human right group have called out to Indonesia authorities to desist from the executing foreigners charged with drug trafficking on Wednesday.
14 people including 5 Nigerian, a Zimbabwean,a Pakistani, an Indian and an Indonesia , all on death row were on told they had 72 hours to live on Tuesday.
Josef Benedict, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for South East Asia and the Pacific has urged the Indonesian President Joko Widodo 'jokowi' not to carry out such act so as to avoid a bad reputation in world history.
Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for South East Asia and the Pacific, Josef Benedict, expressed concerns that some of the prisoners were convicted in unfair trials and have not submitted clemency request to the President.
“President Widodo’s era was supposed to represent a new start for human rights in Indonesia. Sadly, he could preside over the highest number of executions in the country’s democratic era at a time when most of the world has turned its back on this cruel practice,” said
“There is no evidence to support President Widodo’s position. The death penalty does not deter crime. Carrying out executions will not rid Indonesia of drugs. It is never the solution, and it will damage Indonesia’s standing in the world.”
“If President Widodo is serious about claiming a place for Indonesia on the world stage and as a leader for the region, he cannot ignore its human rights obligations. The first step towards that must be a moratorium on executions with a view to ridding Indonesia of the unjust punishment once and for all.” Benedict said.
Amnesty International also gathered that at least a dozen death row prisoners could be executed as soon as this weekend, many of them for drug offences.
If we could remember last year, drug foreigner drug traffickers including a Nigerian was executed whereas Filipino Mary Jane Veloso, a housemaid and mother of two was excluded.
