29 July 2016•Update: 29 July 2016
By Ainur Rohmah
TUBAN, Indonesia
Indonesia confirmed Friday that four out of 14 convicted drug smugglers expected to be executed had been shot by firing squads on a notorious island prison.
Deputy Attorney General Noor Rachmad told a press conference, "the first [executed] was [Indonesian] Freddy Budiman, then [Senegalese] Seck Osmane, [Nigerians] Michael Titus and Humphrey Ejike."
The remaining 10 death row inmates will be executed at a later stage, kompas.com quoted him as saying -- without providing details-- at Wijayapura Dock in Cilacap, the port city closest to Nusakambangan prison in Java.
Rachmad insisted that prosecutors had considered the four convicts’ cases in depth before the executions, concluding their crimes had been grave and caused serious damage to others.
He expressed his condolences to their families and said, "surely this is not a fun job, this job is miserable because it involves peoples’ live."
On Thursday, 14 coffins were seen being transported to Nusakambangan, and detik.com reported Friday that five ambulances -- four of them carrying the bodies of the executed -- had left the island.
The body of Budiman, who authorities have accused of coordinating drug trafficking operations from behind bars, will be transported to his hometown of Surabaya in East Java for burial as he had requested.
The body of Ejike will be cremated, while those of Titus and Osmane will be returned to their home countries.
Rachmad apologized to all parties, including journalists, due to information on the execution not being given in detail.
"We're trying to ensure there is not a lot of noise [surrounding the executions],” he said.
Among those expected to be executed were also nationals of India, Pakistan, Zimbabwe and Sierra Leone.
Amnesty International asked that the executions should not go ahead, saying the families were only informed of the decision Thursday morning -- contrary to Indonesian law and international standards.
Indonesian law requires that relatives be informed at least 72 hours in advance.
Rafendi Djamin, Amnesty International’s director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, said that President Joko Widodo “should not become the most prolific executioner in recent Indonesian history”.
“He still has time to pull back from these unlawful executions, before inviting global notoriety.”
Indonesia has some of the harshest anti-narcotic laws in the world. Widodo declared a "drug emergency" last year, on the grounds that such use reportedly kills around 40-50 people in the country daily.
Last year’s executions were heavily criticized by the international community, with some countries -- whose nationals had been put to death -- withdrawing ambassadors from Jakarta.
