Tangerang to execute death-row inmate

Multa Fidrus ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Tangerang   |  Wed, 12/24/2008 10:49 AM  |  City

Prosecutors in Tangerang announced Tuesday the imminent execution of Namaona Dennis, a Malawi national convicted of drug smuggling, following the rejection of his appeal last October by the West Java High Court.

Agus Sutoto, head of the Tangerang Prosecutors Office, said the execution would likely be carried out at the Science and Technology Development Center (Puspitek) area in Serpong because it was "sterile from the public".

"We have prepared everything required for the execution, from administrative preparations to sending letters to inform the family of the convicted," he said, adding the execution would be carried out before the end of the month.

Dennis was apprehended by customs officials at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport on April 16, 2001, for attempting to smuggle 940 grams of heroin into the country. He carried the drugs in 73 capsules that he had swallowed.

The capsules were discovered after he was X-rayed at the airport clinic by a customs official.

The Tangerang District Court sentenced him to death in 2001.

Data from the court, which frequently hands down death sentences for drug traffickers, shows Dennis filed an appeal for a presidential pardon in 2004, along with four other convicts. But then president Megawati Soekarnoputri turned down their requests for clemency.

The four others were Indra Bahadur Tamang from Nepal, Muhammad Abdul Hafez from Pakistan, and Samuel Iwuchekwu and Hansen Anthony from Nigeria. Some of them were executed at the Nusa Kambangan prison island earlier this year.

Since 200, the district court has sentenced 40 people to death for drug-related crimes.

One of those convicted, Bunyong Kaosa Ard, died after falling sick in the Tangerang Women's Penitentiary. She, along with five others, had received sentence reductions after filing appeals with the High Court and the Supreme Court.

Seven of the 34 prisoners still on death row are Indonesians. They are Deni Setia Maharwan, Meirika Franola, Rani Andriani, Edith Yunit Sianturi, Merry Utami, Benny Sudrajat (alias Andreas Indrijatno) and Budi Sucipto (alias Iming Santoso).

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