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First Third Of 2024 In Saudi Arabia: Executions Rise By 189% And Portend Another Bloody Year. At Least 71 Currently Facing Execution.

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Since the beginning of 2024 until the end of April, the Ministry of Interior in Saudi Arabia announced the execution of 55 individuals. This figure constitutes a 189% increase compared to the executions in the first third of 2023, which witnessed 19 executions. The European Saudi Organization for Human Rights views these numbers as a clear indication of the Saudi government's continued approach towards executing and issuing death sentences, and that the promises made in recent years have become elusive.

Indonesian court sentences drug dealer to death

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The Makassar District Court sentenced on Monday a drug dealer, Amiruddin alias Aco, 37, to death for possessing 921 grams of crystal methamphetamine and 4,208 ecstasy pills.

Presiding judge Ibrahim Palino said the court found no mitigating factors in the case of the defendant, who had earlier been sentenced to 20 years by the East Kalimantan District Court for another drug case.

"The defendant was proved guilty of drug abuse, selling and distributing drugs. So, the defendant was sentenced to death," Ibrahim said. Before getting arrested in Makassar, he said, the defendant was apprehended 3 times and sentenced by the East Kalimantan District Court, but Aco escaped from the Balikpapan penitentiary.

The presiding judge also revealed that the East Kalimantan office of the Law and Human Rights Ministry had earlier recommended the court give a heavy sentence against the defendant.

After the court session, the defendant's lawyer Muhammad Yunus said he would discuss further legal steps with his client.

"Personally, I would suggest he appeal, but I have not discussed the verdict with my client," Yunus said.

The verdict was the same as the sentence demanded by the prosecutors on July 29.

"The aggravating factor is the defendant was sentenced 4 times in drug cases and, in the last verdict, he escaped," prosecutor Zulkarnaen A Lopa said as he read the sentence demand, adding that the demand for a death sentence was a first for the Makassar Prosecutor's Office.

Police arrested Amiruddin on Jan. 17, this year in a hotel in Makassar. The police found the meth and pills after searching his rented house and a relative's house in the city. Police earlier apprehended Michael Wibisono, 32, who was carrying 7 grams of crystal meth, in a raid on Jl. Botolempangan. The arrest of Wibisono lead to Aco.

The verdict against Aco adds to the list of people convicted to death for drug cases. The Medan District Court sentenced Amrih Prayoga to death in June this year for possessing 25 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine and 30,000 ecstasy pills.

In January, Indonesia executed 6 inmates convicted of drug trafficking charges, namely Ang Kin Soei (who was Dutch), Daniel Enemuo (Nigerian), Marco Archer Cardoso Moreira (Brazilian), Namaona Denis (Nigerian), Rani Andriani alias Melisia Aprilia (Indonesian) and Tran Thi Bich Hanh (Vietnamese).

New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) has criticized the application of the death penalty for inmates convicted of drug trafficking charges, saying that it was intolerable as international human rights law has limited the use of the death penalty to only "the most serious crimes", typically crimes resulting in death or grievous bodily harm.

Source: Jakarta Post, August 12, 2015

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Location: Indonesia
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