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Death-row convict Merri Utami isolated in special cell in Nusakambangan
Merri Utami, a death-row drug convict, has been moved to Nusakambangan prison island in Cilacap, Central Java, as the next round of executions draws nearer.
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All ready – A security guard at Nusakambangan prison island secures the visits of family members of death-row inmates ahead of their executions in April 2015. (thejakartapost.com/Agus Maryono)
M
erri Utami, a death-row drug convict, has been moved to Nusakambangan prison island in Cilacap, Central Java, as the next round of executions draws nearer.
Merri, from Sukoharjo, Central Java, had been serving her sentence at the Tangerang Women’s Penitentiary in Banten since 2004 before she was moved to Nusakambangan under tight escort at 4:30 a.m. local time on Sunday. Merri was sentenced to death for carrying 1.1 kilograms of heroin at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in 2003.
The transfer of Merry to Nusakambangan indicates that the third round of executions of drug convicts on the prison island will be carried out in the near future. The transfer was carried out not long after the Supreme Court rejected a second case review request filed by death-row convict Freddy Budiman on Friday.
“I’ve received a report that Merri Utami has been transferred to Nusakambangan and placed in a special room. It’s probable that the executions will be conducted next week but for an exact schedule, please ask the Attorney General’s Office. Technically, Nusakambangan is ready for the executions,” head of the correctional division facility at the Central Java office of the Law and Human Rights Ministry, Molyanto, told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.
Merri has been placed in an isolation cell at the Besi Prison. She is now the only female inmate at Nusakambangan, where around 1,000 high-security convicts, 50 of whom are on death row, are serving their sentences.
Attorney General HM Prasetyo had previously stated that the execution of several drug convicts would take place after Idul Fitri but the exact date of the executions remains unknown. In January 2015, six death-row inmates were executed in Nusakambangan, followed by eight more three months later. (ebf)
