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Family wants drug convict Merri Utami to be buried in Nusakambangan
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Past memory – This picture shows death row convict Merri Utami’s house (right) in Singopuran, Kartasura, Sukoharjo, Central Java, where she used to live. (thejakartapost.com/Ganug Nugroho Adi)
F
amily members of drug convict Merri Utama have said they are ready to accept wholeheartedly if their loved one has to end her life in front of a firing squad.
Speaking on behalf of her family, Merri’s only daughter, identified only as Devi, said that should she die in the execution, she wanted her mother to be buried on Nusakambangan prison island in Cilacap, Central Java.
“Her only daughter has arrived in Cilacap. She phoned me last night [Tuesday evening], saying she had met with prosecutors to convey the family’s request that Merri could be buried on Nusakambangan,” said the family’s spokesperson, Priyono, on Wednesday. He said the decision was the result of a family meeting in Notosura, Kartasura, Sukoharjo, Central Java.
(Read also : Firing squad personnel dispatched to Nusakambangan)
Merri is one of 14 death row convicts, who reportedly will be executed soon in Nusakambangan. Before she was arrested by security officers for smuggling heroin at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in 2001, Merri lived with her sister, Dian, in Kartasura, Central Java. Spending 13 years in prison, Merri has never been visited by Dian or other family members.
Priyono said all her family members were disappointed with what Merri had done. Her parents’ money were all gone to cover her living expenses, including to pay her work fees as a migrant worker in Hong Kong, he said.
“In Hong Kong, she instead on working as a drug courier, not as a migrant worker. This was what really upset her family,” said Priyono.
Merri was arrested for smuggling 1.1 kilograms of heroin on Oct.21, 2001. Tangerang District Court in Banten sentenced her to death in a trial in May 2002.
After serving 13 years at the Tangerang Women’s Penitentiary, Merri was moved to Nusakambangan on Sunday. She is now in an isolation cell at Besi Prison. (ebf)
