Chaubey put into solitary

Chaubey put into solitary

Ayodhya Prasadh Chaubey, an Indian national sentenced to death
for smuggling drugs, has been isolated in a special cell since
last week at Tanjung Gusta Penitentiary in Medan, North Sumatra,
a lawyer said on Monday.

According to prison regulations, death row convicts who are
placed in isolation are nearing their execution date, according
to Irham Buana Nasution, Chaubey's lawyer from the Legal Aid
Institute (LBH) in Medan.

Separately, the spokesman of the North Sumatra Prosecutor's
Office, J. A. Ketaren, confirmed that Chaubey would be executed
soon. He said police and the prosecutor's office had agreed on
the date and place of the execution, but the information was
confidential.

Chaubey was arrested in 1994 in Medan, North Sumatra, when
trying to smuggle 12 kilograms of heroin into the country. The
local district court sentenced him to death one year later.

Subsequently, he appealed to higher courts but both the Medan
High Court and the Supreme Court rejected his appeals. President
Megawati Soekarnoputri also turned down his plea for clemency.

The Indian government has expressed objection to the planned
execution of Chaubey, saying the death row convict is too old to
face a firing squad.

There are many death-row drug convicts but only one drug
offender has been executed in the last 10 years when Malaysian
Chan Ting Tong, alias Steven Chong, was shot by a 12-man firing
squad.

Human rights campaigners have pushed for an end to the death
penalty, which they say has proven ineffective in deterring drug
dealers and is against the basic human right to live. -- JP