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Roundup: Indonesia remains adamant with execution plans despite protests from UN, foreign countries

Xinhua, April 27, 2015 Adjust font size:

Indonesia continues preparations for related plans to execute convicts of drug and murder cases in high security island prison of Nusakambangan in Cilacap, Central Java despite protests and calls to reconsider the plans conveyed by the UN secretary general and several countries.

Responding the opposing calls regarding Indonesia's plan to execute convicts, Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla said that the plan fits with the nation's law and has to be respected. "We would only abide by our regulation. We have to respect the existing law in Indonesia,"Jusuf said here on Monday.

The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has urged Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Saturday not to execute the convicts, calling him to impose moratorium on death penalty. Ban said that death penalty should only be imposed against those implicated in serious crimes such as international killings.

France President Francois Hollande also reminded Indonesia that there would be "diplomatic consequence" in bilateral ties should Indonesia continues the execution against its national.

Australia and Brazil had previously conveyed their protests against the execution against their nationals. Australia had threatened to disclose the recording of President Widodo's cellular phone conversation during the 2014 election wiretapped by New Zealand intelligence agency that has links to Australia and several other countries.

Philippine President Benigno Aquino planned to discuss ways to free the Philippine national Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso, the mother of two children, from the execution. He said that he would talk with President Widodo in ASEAN Leader Summit held in Kuala Lumpur to free Mary Jane from the execution.

Nine of the previous 10 convicts facing Indonesia's second batch of execution had already transferred to isolation cells in Nusakambangan prison, waiting for the execution which will possibly be conducted on Tuesday.

Those nine prisoners consisted of eight from several nationalities who committed drug cases, and one from Indonesia who committed a major murder case. The foreign convicts were from Australia, Ghana, Nigeria, Brazil, the Philippines, Spain and South Africa.

The second batch execution was delayed from the original schedule in February this year due to "technical problem" as legal process related to pleas filed in by some of the convicts were still processed in several Indonesian courts.

Indonesia had previously executed six foreign and domestic drug convicts in January this year. The death execution against those involved in drug cases was an implementation of President Widodo' s stern move to wage a war against drug abuses which he claimed will endanger the future of the nation's young generation. Endi