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