Indonesia Executes 3 Nigerians, One Other for Drug Trafficking

Indonesia Friday executed four drug convicts, three of them Nigerians, by firing squad, an official said, drawing swift condemnation from rights groups as Jakarta pushes on with its campaign of capital punishment.

“This was done not in order to take lives but to stop evil intentions, and the evil act of drug trafficking,” Noor Rachmad, deputy attorney general for general crimes, told reporters.

Amnesty International condemned the executions with the group’s Rafendi Djamin labelling them “a deplorable act”.

The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the European Union had also voiced opposition to the plan in recent days. It was the first round of executions in Indonesia since April last year when authorities put to death eight drug convicts, including two Australians, which sparked international outrage.

The executed Indonesian was named as Freddy Budiman, while the three Nigerians were: Seck Osmane, Humphrey Jefferson Ejike Eleweke and Michael Titus Igweh.

Eleweke’s lawyer, Afif Abdul Qoyim, told AFP the execution should not have gone ahead as his client this week filed a legal appeal. “When this process in not respected, that means that this is no longer a country that upholds the law, nor human rights,” he said.

It was the third batch of executions under President Joko Widodo, and means 18 drug convicts — mostly foreigners — have been put to death since he became leader in 2014.

Widodo has defended dramatically ramping up the use of capital punishment, saying that Indonesia is fighting a war on drugs and traffickers must be heavily punished.

But his execution drive has shocked the international community and disappointed activists, particularly as hopes were high that Widodo, seen as a fresh face in a political world dominated by figures from Indonesia’s authoritarian past, would improve the country’s rights record

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