Convicted drug dealers to be executed soon

Convicted drug dealers to be executed soon

The Attorney General's Office will execute six drug dealers in
the near future after President Megawati Soekarnoputri refused to
pardon the convicts on death row.

"We will execute them soon after we settle administrative
matters. It's about time," spokesman Andi Syarifuddin
told reporters during a press conference on Tuesday.

He said that his office had been informed that Megawati had
refused to pardon the convicts, meaning that their sentence was
final. However, Andi said that the office needed to secure a
written letter from the President ordering the execution.

Andi said that his office would inform the police to prepare
for the execution. Indonesia uses a firing squad to execute
convicts sentenced to death.

Minister of Justice and Human Rights Yusril Ihza Mahendra
announced on Monday that Megawati had refused to pardon the six
convicts and that she wanted a speedy execution.

Megawati also rejected appeals by convicts who have been
sentenced to life imprisonment or death for drug offenses.

The last execution carried out for a drug dealer occurred in
1994, when a Malaysian, identified as Steven, was shot to death.

At the time, Steven was shot to death by a group of 12
officers. Only one of the guns used by the officers carried live
ammunition.

Currently, there are 16 convicts who have been sentenced to
death and five others who have received life imprisonment.
Most of the convicts are foreigners. They are five Nepalese, four
Nigerians, two Thais, an Angolan, a Pakistani, a Zimbabwean, a
Malawi, a Dutch man and five Indonesians.

Most of them were arrested at the Soekarno-Hatta International
Airport in Tangerang, Banten while trying to smuggle drugs into
the country. -- JP