T

he recent transfer of death row inmate Merri Utami to a secluded prison on Nusakambangan Island in Cilacap, Central Java, has put the relatives and lawyers of other convicts facing the death penalty into a state of anxiety over the imminent executions.

Merri was moved to Nusakambangan from the Tangerang Women’s Penitentiary in Banten at about 8 p.m. on Saturday, a development her lawyer Troy Latuconsina described as “shocking and unexpected”.

“I was informed about nothing. I knew it when it happened,” Troy said, expressing his surprise and anger when speaking to The Jakarta Post minutes after Merri was taken away from the women’s prison.

The transfer of Merri, which happened only a day after the Supreme Court rejected a case review filed by drug convict Freddy Budiman, has raised concerns that the President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo administration’s third round of executions will take place by the end of this month.

Attorney General M. Prasetyo previously cited Freddy’s pending case as among the reasons the executions were delayed. This added to the “Merri factor”. Merri is the only female being detained on Nusakambangan at the moment and she is sharing the secluded prison island with about 1,000 male inmates. She is, however, being kept in an isolated cell away from the others.

Merri was sentenced to death for smuggling 1.1 kilograms of heroin into the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in 2003. She was arrested together with her cousin Rani Andriyani, who was executed in January last year.

Merri’s late cousin was also put into isolation on Nusakambangan just days before her execution and was at the time the only female on the prison island. The eerie similarities have convinced lawyers and anti-death-penalty advocates that the third round of executions is near, despite the ongoing secrecy that is seemingly intended to suppress any outcry protesting the decision.

Speculation has mounted specifically because Nusakambangan has being cleared out of visitors and closed to them until the end of the month.

“The executions may take place next week, but please ask the Attorney General’s Office for confirmation,” said Molyanto, head of the penitentiary division of the law and human rights office of Central Java, on Sunday.

“All technical matters have been prepared on Nusakambangan. Everything is ready for the executions,” he added.

Prasetyo has remained tight-lipped about the details of his plan to put more drug convicts to death. In responding to queries for information, he only made assurances that the government is firm on its policy to conduct executions no matter what the cost.

He, however, declined to comment on details, except to confirm to the press in a light tone that an Indonesian woman was also on the list to be killed. Prasetyo added that the official notifications to the governments of foreign convicts would be done by the Foreign Ministry instead of by his office.