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Executions to be raised at ASEAN
In what appears to be a last ditch attempt to save his fellow citizen, Philippine President Benigno Aquino will use the 26th ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to meet with President Joko âJokowiâ Widodo to appeal for the life of a Philippine national who is due to be executed along with nine other domestic and international drug traffickers on Tuesday
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n what appears to be a last ditch attempt to save his fellow citizen, Philippine President Benigno Aquino will use the 26th ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to meet with President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo to appeal for the life of a Philippine national who is due to be executed along with nine other domestic and international drug traffickers on Tuesday.
'Once I am there, I will try to speak with President Joko Widodo of Indonesia to appeal once more,' Aquino said as quoted by Agence France-Presse in Manila on Sunday.
Aquino expressed the hope despite the fact that Jokowi rejected Philippine national Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso's clemency plea in January. The Supreme Court also rejected in March a request to review Veloso's case in which the 30-year-old single mother received the death penalty for trafficking 2.6 kilograms of heroin in 2009 in Yogyakarta.
Philippine Vice President Jejomar Binay also made an appeal for Veloso during a visit to Indonesia last week.
Veloso, through her lawyers, will also file a second case review with the Supreme Court on Monday, citing evidence that she was a human trafficking victim, not a drug smuggler.
Indonesian law allows convicts to file case review pleas twice before considering a verdict final and binding.
Meanwhile, Australia, Brazil and France have also strongly urged Jokowi to halt the execution of their citizens: Brazilian Rodrigo Gularte, who is said to be mentally ill, Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran of the Bali Nine drug trafficking group, as well as Frenchman Serge Areski Atlaoui.
The foreign governments have warned Indonesia that going ahead with the executions would damage the long-established bilateral relationships with Jokowi's administration.
Departing for Kuala Lumpur on Sunday, President Jokowi refused to respond to questions on the executions.
'I won't answer questions [regarding the foreign governments' pleas]. My stance has been made clear and I won't repeat it,' he said.
Jokowi has demanded other countries respect Indonesia's law enforcement and not interfere in the country's domestic affairs.
Jokowi is slated to attend the ASEAN Summit, which will discuss regional economic, political and social issues.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Arrmanatha Nasir said the government hoped the country's law enforcement decisions would not be used against it with regard to maintaining bilateral ties with any country.
'We just want all countries to respect the laws that apply here, just like we respect the laws of other countries,' Arrmanatha told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.
Other drug traffickers slated to be execution on the isolated Nusakambangan prison island near Cilacap, Central Java, are Ghanaian Martin Anderson, Indonesian Zainal Abidin, and Nigerians Raheem Agbaje, Sylvester Obiekwe Nwolise and Okwudili Oyatanze.
Attorney General's Office (AGO) spokesman Tony Spontana confirmed that the executions would be conducted 'this week' but refused to disclose the exact day. Some lawyers for the convicts have said that they will be carried out on Tuesday.
Tony also revealed that there was a possibility that not all 10 convicts would be executed. Frenchman Atlaoui's case review plea is still awaiting a decision while Indonesian Zainal is slated to have his case reviewed by the Supreme Court on Monday.
Supreme Court spokesman Suhadi told the Post that if all judges hearing the case 'have a shared understanding' on the plea, then the court would decide whether to accept or reject Zainal's petition on the same day.
'But, if some members of the panel have dissenting opinions on the proposal, then it is likely that another hearing will be conducted a couple of days later,' Suhadi said.
He further said that if the court rejected Zainal's petition then the Supreme Court would directly send his dossiers to the AGO to confirm that his execution could go ahead.
Zainal's lawyer, Ade Wilyawan, lashed out at Suhadi, saying the Supreme Court could not directly send the dossiers on the day the final ruling was read out as the Criminal Law Procedures Code regulated that it would take at least one week for the Supreme Court to transfer the dossiers to the AGO after the reading.
'As this is about someone's life, then we call on the Supreme Court to carefully make its final ruling on my client's case review proposal,' Ade said.
