 |
| Nusa Kambangan Island, off Java, Indonesia |
Jakarta. Executioners and a total of 12 ambulances carrying coffins have been deployed to Nusakambangan prison island, ahead of the imminent killing, for drug offenses, of eight foreigners and one Indonesian national.
“Each person will face 14 executors,” the Central Java Police chief, Insp. Gen. Noerali, said on Tuesday, confirming that the executions were imminent. “There are nine people in total,” he said.
The executions on the prison island near Cilacap in Central Java are likely to be carried out in the early hours of Wednesday, but neither date nor time have been officially announced.
On the list of people to be executed are ‘Bali Nine’ duo Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, both Australian nationals, Filipina Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso, Rodrigo Gularte, a Brazilian diagnosed with a mental illness, Raheem Agbaje Salami, Martin Anderson, Sylvester Obiekwe Nwolise and Okwudili Oyatanze of Nigeria, and Indonesian national Zainal Abidin.
A Frenchman, Serge Atlaoui, was initially part of this group of people, but he has been granted a temporary reprieve after his lawyer managed to file a final appeal on the verge of the deadline on Thursday.
France, Australia and Brazil have been the most vocal critics of President Joko Widodo’s decision to carry out the executions.
AGO Denies Atlaoui’s Execution Delayed Due to French Pressure
 |
| Serge Atlaoui |
Jakarta. The Attorney General’s Office has denied that the removal of a Frenchman from a list of drug convicts to be executed immediately was the result of statements made by President François Hollande last week.
AGO spokesman Tony Spontana confirmed on Monday that French national Serge Atlaoui would not be executed along with nine other people, possibly as early as Tuesday.
“It [the delay] is not because of the French president’s pressure,” Tony said, referring to Hollande’s statement that there would be serious consequences if Indonesia proceeded with Atlaoui’s execution.
Tony said Atlaoui would not face imminent execution because he had only recently submitted a final appeal against the presidential decree rejecting his clemency.
“He submitted his challenge close to the deadline on Thursday,” Tony said, adding that the State Administrative Court was looking into the appeal.
Lawyers for Mary Jane Veloso, a death-row convict from the Philippines, also managed to submit another appeal on Thursday afternoon to save the 30-year-old, but the AGO has not said whether Veloso’s execution would be delayed.
Tony said the preparations for the executions of nine convicts were ongoing in the maximum-security prison on Nusakambangan island, off Central Java.
“We are waiting for the legal process to complete, a process that we must respect,” Tony said. “If the State Administrative Court rejects the appeal, Atlaoui will be executed.”
Source:
The Jakarta Globe, April 27, 2015
Firing squads ‘ready’ for executions: Police
Cilacap Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Ulung Sampurna Jaya says that the police have prepared the firing squads for the executions of nine death row inmates that are expected to be conducted either on Tuesday evening or early Wednesday, in line with existing rules.
He said the convicts would be shot simultaneously by each of their own firing squads.
Ulung said the firing squads were ready and could be dispatched straightaway to the execution site once the execution orders were issued.
“The National Police are ready. Any time the Attorney General’s Office [AGO] orders us to move, we are ready to move,” he said in Cilacap, on the sidelines of security checks jointly conducted by the Central Java Police and the Jakarta Prosecutors’ Office on Tuesday.
Jakarta Prosecutors’ Office head M. Adi Toegarisman said based on the security checks he conducted together with Central Java Police chief Insp. Gen. Noer Ali on Nusakambangan, all preparations for the executions were complete.
He refused to make comment on the exact time of the executions. “On the exact execution time, we cannot yet announce it,” said Adi.
As stated earlier, the executions of the nine death row inmates are expected to be held either on Tuesday evening or early Wednesday.
Central Java Police chief Insp. Gen. Noer Ali said on Tuesday that the police had readied their personnel to secure the executions of nine death row inmates on Nusakambangan prison island in Cilacap regency, Central Java.
“We have deployed more than 1,400 officers, not including military personnel, to secure the executions. There’s been no problem so far. We are perfectly ready to secure the executions,” the police chief told journalists after an inspection of the security of the execution site on Nusakambangan on Tuesday.
Noer said the police were on full alert and had ensured that the executions would run smoothly.
The atmosphere is tense around Wijayapura quay complex, which contains a ferry terminal serving the prison island. Police officers and military personnel equipped with long-range firearms are monitoring all people and activities in the vicinity of Nusakambangan.
The nine facing death are two Australians named Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, Raheem Agbaje Salami, Okwudili Oyatanze, and Silvester Obiekwe Nwaolise alias Mustofa from Nigeria, Zainal Abidin of Indonesia, Rodrigo Gularte from Brazil, Martin Anderson alias Belo from Ghana and Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso from the Philippines.
Source:
The Jakarta Post, April 28, 2015
