Conflicting reports on Wednesday night cast more doubt over the immediate fate of the Australians Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, on death row in Indonesia for their part in a 2005 drug smuggling plot.
Attorney general HM Prasetyo was reported as saying his department was still evaluating six executions held last week, but the Australians would be among the next round.
“We are still finding the right time for the next executions of citizens of France, Ghana, Cordova, Brazil, the Philippines, Australia and one Indonesian,” he reportedly told a parliamentary committee.
He didn’t reveal the names of the next prisoners, but Chan and Sukumaran are the only Australians on death row, and Prasetyo has said previously they would be dealt with together.
However, later reports contradicted that information. The attorney-general’s spokesman, Tony Spontana, said Prasetyo did not make the comments,
the ABC reported.
The head of the parliamentary committee, Azis Syamsuddin, said the attorney-general did no mention the nationalities of the next group of people to be executed.
Prasetyo reportedly said the next executions would likely again be held on the Central Java prison island of Nusakambangan, but there had been issues that needed attention.
“There were obstacles,” he told the committee. “The intrusion of human rights activists, the efforts of our electronic media reporters, trying to disguise themselves as fishermen.
“We can’t prevent them from getting close to the execution location.These are all being evaluated.”
Lawyers for Chan, 31 and Sukumaran, 33, are in Bali preparing to lodge a final court appeal.
Drug convicts from OZ, Brazil, France to face firing squad soon
Attorney General HM Prasetyo said on Wednesday that five death-row drug-trafficking convicts from France, Ghana, the Philippines and Australia would soon be executed.
Speaking in a hearing with the House of Representatives’ Commission III overseeing legal and security affairs, Prasetyo said that his office was still preparing the location for the execution as well as the timing, as the rainy season was a difficult time to implement the punishment.
“We are still looking for an ideal place [for the execution]. I can confirm that there are convicts from France, Ghana, the Philippines, Australia and Indonesia on our list for immediate execution,” said the NasDem Party politician.
Prasetyo did not disclose the identities of the death-row inmates.
During the hearing, Prasetyo also said that the execution of two Bali Nine drug traffickers, Michael Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, would not be conducted in Bali. The two Australian nationals are currently serving time in the Kerobokan Penitentiary in Denpasar.
Source: The Jakarta Post, January 28, 2015
