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Jakarta Post

Nusakambangan prisons temporarily halt family visits as executions draw nearer

News Desk (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Mon, July 25, 2016

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Nusakambangan prisons temporarily halt family visits as executions draw nearer All set– Family members of death-row inmates leave Nusakambangan prison island ahead of a round of executions in April 2015. (thejakartapost.com/Agus Maryono)

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isiting rights for family members of  all prisoners on Nusakambangan prison island in Cilacap, Central Java, have reportedly been temporarily halted.

At Wijayapura Quay in Cilacap, a number of visitors who had come to visit their relatives in Nusakambangan were denied passage to the prison island on Monday, Kompas.com reported. They left Wijayapura Quay after meeting with officers at the crossing point security post.

One of the visitors, Nasiroh, 60, said she wanted to visit her son who is currently serving a sentence in Besi Prison. “The officers wouldn’t allow me to cross to the island. They said family visits to Nusakambangan would be temporarily closed for this whole week,” said Nasiroh, a resident of Sampang, Cilacap. She said none of the officers gave her clear information about the reason family visits had been temporary closed.

(Read also : Death-row convict Merri Utami isolated in special cell in Nusakambangan)

Information obtained from officials at the Wijayapura Quay reveals that a notification about the temporary closure of family visits had been delivered to families of prisoners since last week. But families were not given specific reasons for the closure, which will be in effect for one week starting from Monday.

It is suspected that the temporary closure of family visits is related to the executions of drug convicts, which will reportedly be conducted in the near future.

The closure of visiting time for families of prisoners on Nusakambangan prison island has always been conducted ahead the executions of death-row convicts, Antara news agency reported.

Merri Utami, a death-row inmate convicted of drug trafficking, has been moved to Nusakambangan. The Sukoharjo resident had been serving her sentence at the Tangerang Women’s Penitentiary in Banten since 2004 before she was moved to Nusakambangan under tight security escort at around 4:30 a.m. local time on Sunday. Merri was sentenced to death for being caught with 1.1 kilograms of heroin at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten, in 2003. (ebf)

-- Agus Maryono of Cilacap, Central Java, contributed to this story.

 

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