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Indonesia carries out midnight executions
Cilacap: Four convicted drug offenders were executed in Indonesia in the early hours of Friday morning but the lives of another 10 were spared in a shock eleventh hour reprieve.
Three Nigerians - Humphrey Jefferson Ejike Eleweke, Seck Osmane and Michael Titus Igweh and Indonesian Freddy Budiman - were killed by firing squad at 12.45am in the middle of torrential downpours.
It is not clear why the execution of the other ten prisoners did not proceed.
He said those who had been executed had filed for judicial reviews twice and both were rejected.
Human rights groups and lawyers had fought to persuade President Joko Widodo to postpone the executions, claiming there was evidence of torture, corruption, bribery and miscarriages of justice.
In the hours before the executions it emerged former Indonesian president Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie had appealed to President Joko Widodo to save the life of Pakistani textile worker Zulfiqar Ali, saying evidence pointed to his innocence.
Mr Habibie also called for a moratorium on the death penalty.
Mr Ali's lawyer, Saut Edward Rajaguguk, said that prosecutors did not give him reasons for the postponement.
"Thank God, my client can still breathe," he said.
Mr Ali's wife, Siti Rouhani, who had almost collapsed when she was informed of her husband's execution on Thursday morning, said she was very grateful for the last minute reprieve.
"Thank God the Indonesian Government still listens to our voices,'" she said.
"We don't know what will happen next because I was not allowed to meet with my husband. I hope he will be fine because I took all his clothes including his oxygen tank."
Amnesty International said some of the cases were emblematic of systemic flaws within the Indonesian justice system.
The lead up to the executions - on the penal island of Nusakambangan known as Indonesia's Alcatraz - provoked noticeably less international outrage and media coverage than those last year, which included Australians Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan.
Cont -
http://www.smh.com.au/world/indonesia-carries-out-midnight-executions-20160728-gqg7wx.html
Cilacap: Four convicted drug offenders were executed in Indonesia in the early hours of Friday morning but the lives of another 10 were spared in a shock eleventh hour reprieve.
Three Nigerians - Humphrey Jefferson Ejike Eleweke, Seck Osmane and Michael Titus Igweh and Indonesian Freddy Budiman - were killed by firing squad at 12.45am in the middle of torrential downpours.
It is not clear why the execution of the other ten prisoners did not proceed.
He said those who had been executed had filed for judicial reviews twice and both were rejected.
Human rights groups and lawyers had fought to persuade President Joko Widodo to postpone the executions, claiming there was evidence of torture, corruption, bribery and miscarriages of justice.
In the hours before the executions it emerged former Indonesian president Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie had appealed to President Joko Widodo to save the life of Pakistani textile worker Zulfiqar Ali, saying evidence pointed to his innocence.
Mr Habibie also called for a moratorium on the death penalty.
Mr Ali's lawyer, Saut Edward Rajaguguk, said that prosecutors did not give him reasons for the postponement.
"Thank God, my client can still breathe," he said.
Mr Ali's wife, Siti Rouhani, who had almost collapsed when she was informed of her husband's execution on Thursday morning, said she was very grateful for the last minute reprieve.
"Thank God the Indonesian Government still listens to our voices,'" she said.
"We don't know what will happen next because I was not allowed to meet with my husband. I hope he will be fine because I took all his clothes including his oxygen tank."
Amnesty International said some of the cases were emblematic of systemic flaws within the Indonesian justice system.
The lead up to the executions - on the penal island of Nusakambangan known as Indonesia's Alcatraz - provoked noticeably less international outrage and media coverage than those last year, which included Australians Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan.
Cont -
http://www.smh.com.au/world/indonesia-carries-out-midnight-executions-20160728-gqg7wx.html