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ive years after executing the three Bali bombers in 2008, Indonesia sent a drug convict to the firing squad on Thursday night, in a move human rights activists say reflects the government’s incoherent stance on the death penalty.

Attorney General Basrief Arief confirmed on Friday that Nigerian drug trafficker Adam Wilson, who was sentenced to death in 2004 for possession of 1 kilogram of heroin, had been executed in Jakarta.

“Last night, the execution was conducted in Thousand Islands Regency,” Basrief told reporters.

Wilson made headlines in January when Jakarta Police officers discovered that he was running an international drug syndicate while awaiting execution in Nusakambangan Island prison in Central Java. He allegedly worked with two other foreign inmates, Malaysian national Lee Chee Hen and Singaporean Tan Swa Lin, who are also on death row.

The revelation sparked concern that the country was losing its battle against drug abuse. The National Narcotics Agency (BNN) and the National Anti-Narcotics Movement (Gannas) called on the AGO to immediately execute all drug convicts on death row.

Wilson might not be the only convict to face the firing squad in 2013. The AGO previously announced that it was aiming to execute 10 convicts this year. As of December 2012, Indonesia had 113 people on death row, 71 of whom were drug convicts. Some, like Wilson, have been incarcerated for more than a decade due to the prolonged legal process.

The latest foreigner known to have been sentenced to death in Indonesia is Lindsay Sandiford, 56, who was found guilty of smuggling 5 kilograms of cocaine into Bali.

While anti-drugs activists will likely cheer Wilson’s execution, human rights activists are troubled by the AGO’s decision.

Coordinator of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) Haris Azhar said that Wilson’s execution reflected “the paradox of the government’s human rights stance”.

“The execution was carried out amid global calls to abolish the death penalty. In recent years, Indonesia had appeared to be shifting away from the death penalty, considering the fact that the country had not executed anyone since 2008,” Haris told The Jakarta Post.

In 2008, Indonesia put 10 drug and murder convicts — including the three Bali bombers Amrozi, Imam Samudra and Mukhlas — to death. In 2009, Indonesia was the only Southeast Asian country not to have executed any convicts.

Kontras and six other NGOs have persistently urged the government to adopt the United Nations’ General Assembly Resolution 62/149 issued in 2007, which calls for a moratorium on capital punishment. As of October 2012, 155 countries had abolished the death penalty or had conducted no executions in the previous 10 years.

The rights activists claim the death penalty is a human rights violation that has little deterrent effect. Bhatara Ibnu Reza from human rights watchdog Imparsial, said that the death penalty for terrorists would actually “encourage a new generation of terrorists”.

Haris suggested that the government abolish the death penalty and start promoting restorative justice.

“Instead of executing Wilson, the government should have forced Wilson to reveal the entire network of his international drug syndicate. Now, it’s harder to track down the syndicate since its key player, Wilson, is dead.”

Wilson’s execution also came as the country made efforts to save its own citizens from being executed abroad, efforts hampered by the fact that Indonesia recognizes capital punishment.

Only recently, the government said it was looking for ways to prevent Satinah, a migrant worker in Saudi Arabia, from being executed for killing her employer. The family of her employer had asked for Rp 25 billion (US$2.5 million) in blood money, but the government refused to fulfill the request.

Last October, Deputy Law and Human Rights Minister Denny Indrayana said that 198 Indonesians were awaiting execution around the world. The government, he said, had commuted a number of death sentences in the hope of gaining reciprocal treatment for Indonesians on death row overseas.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has granted 19 of 126 clemency pleas received since he took office in 2004. Among those whose death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment was repeat narcotics offender Meirika “Ola” Franola.