Indonesia to execute five more death row convicts

After taking two Nigerians to a firing squad for drug offenses last week, the Indonesian prosecutors are now planning to execute five more death row convicts this month.

The plan to execute the five convicts who have been on death row for years is part of the Indonesian authorities` efforts to speed up the execution of 57 convicts, some of whom have been on death row since 1994.

Deputy Attorney General for General Crimes Affairs, AH Ritonga said that the execution of the five death row convicts would be carried out by higher prosecutor`s offices as soon as the Attorney General`s Office (AGO) serve them notices for the execution.

"We are now about to serve notice to higher prosecutor`s offices which respectively will carry out the execution," Ritonga said on Wednesday.

Two Nigerians on death row for dug offenses, Samuel Iwuchukwu Okoye and Hansen Anthony Nwaolisa, were executed in Central Java last month. Okoye was sentenced to death by the district court of Tangerang, Banten, on July 5, 2001 for smuggling in 3.8 kg of heroin to Indonesia through Soekarno-Hatta International Airport.

In the meantime, Anthony was given the death penalty by the same court on August 13, 2001 for circulating 3.2 kg of heroin in Indonesia.

The convicts facing the executions this month have all tried the necessary legal avenues and have no longer other appeals so that the prosecutor`s offices will not face any constraints to carry out the executions.

"The executions will be carried out in order to eliminate doubts among the public on the law enforcement in Indonesia," Ritonga said as quoted by `Republika` daily on Wednesday.

One of the five death row convicts is Dukun AS alias Ahmad Suraji, a man sentenced to death for murdering 42 women to ...