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Govt may pull trigger after AACC events
The Attorney Generalâs Office (AGO) confirmed on Thursday that the executions of 10 death row inmates would be conducted shortly after the conclusion of the 60th Asian-African Conference Commemoration (AACC)
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he Attorney General's Office (AGO) confirmed on Thursday that the executions of 10 death row inmates would be conducted shortly after the conclusion of the 60th Asian-African Conference Commemoration (AACC).
AGO spokesman Tony Spontana told The Jakarta Post that the only obstacle it faced was a case review appeal that had been filed by of one of the convicts, Indonesian Zainal Abidin. 'A notification to prepare for execution was sent on Thursday to the prosecutors who will conduct the executions ,' he said on Thursday.
'We are just waiting for the conference to be over. The decision on Zainal's appeal will be handed down today [Thursday] or tomorrow [Friday] and then we are good to go.'
However, he emphasized that the exact date had yet to be decided.
Tony's statement followed the Supreme Court's decision on Wednesday to reject the case review appeals of Serge Areski Atlaoui of France and Martin Anderson alias Belo of Ghana.
Most of the 10 convicts, including two Australians ' Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran ' known as members of the Bali Nine drug trafficking group, had also filed appeals but they were rejected by the court.
Tony argued that the appeals were only filed to postpone the executions, slated to be the second batch of drug convicts executed this year as part of the government's 'dire war against drugs'.
On Jan. 18, six drug convicts were executed in Boyolali and on Nusakambangan prison island in Central Java.
Although the second batch of executions had been rumored to be scheduled for February, the AGO was forced to postpone them as many of the convicts had appealed for case reviews.
'We have never had any doubts [about the executions] and we are authorized by law to carry out the executions,' he said.
Attorney General M. Prasetyo said on Wednesday that all preparations for the executions were in place.
'We are prepared, so we can decide on a date any time,' the former NasDem Party politician said at the House of Representatives.
Most of the convicts have already been transferred to Nusakambangan prison island, which Prasetyo had previously said was 'ideal' for executions.
The executions have been the subject of international controversy, with Brazil and the Netherlands recalling their ambassadors in protest after the first batch of executions. However, they soon returned after a few weeks.
French President Francois Hollande also warned the Indonesian government on Wednesday that the execution of its citizen would damage ties between the two nations, as reported by Agence France-Presse.
He said that executing Atlaoui 'would be damaging for Indonesia, damaging for the relations that we would like to have with it.'
If Atlaoui faced the firing squad, he would be the first French citizen to be executed in nearly 40 years.
National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) member Muhammad Nurkhoirun condemned the government's eagerness to execute the drug convicts.
'Although the commission is completely against drug trafficking, we have always rejected the death sentence because it contradicts every person's right to live,' he said, adding that there were better ways to tackle the country's drug epidemic.
Nurkhoirun explained that the death sentence was irreversible and could turn out to be a fatal mistake if future evidence pointed out an executed convict's innocence.
