P

olice forcibly dispersed a peaceful rally held by a group of human rights activists in front of the State Palace on Monday night.

The rally was held to demand President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo call off the execution of the Philippines'€™ Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso, a death row inmate convicted of trying to smuggle 2.6 kilograms of heroin in her suitcase from Malaysia to Yogyakarta, which according to her happened without her knowledge.

Mutiara Ika Pratiwi of the Perempuan Mahardhika human rights organization said on Tuesday that police officers approached her group and ordered its members to end the rally immediately.

'€œOne of them verbally abused us and said that he was tired of handling many rallies on that day,'€ she told The Jakarta Post over the telephone.

Ika said police broke two of the fingers of one of the protesters when officers tried to snatch away the banner she was holding. She said that she had sent a rally notification letter to the Jakarta Police on Monday afternoon, but did not get official permission as the police insisted that the submission must be done three days prior to a rally.