Press kept from Thai drug convicts

Press kept from Thai drug convicts

MEDAN, North Sumatra: The press is being prevented from
covering the daily activities of two Thai citizens awaiting
execution after President Megawati Soekarnoputri refused them
clemency.

An official letter from the Ministry of Justice and Human
Rights posed at Tanjung Gusta Prison here restricts coverage as
the two Thais await execution.

Saelow Praset, 62, and Namsong Sirilak, 32, has been on death
row since being convicted in 1994 of attempting to smuggle into
the country 12 kilograms of heroin. Another man convicted in that
case, an Indian citizen, was recently executed.

Several prison employees who asked not to be identified
confirmed the restrictions. They said both the print and
electronic media were barred from covering the two convicts'
activities without official permission from the local
prosecutor's office.

Sabli Zuardin, chief of the local office of the justice and
human rights ministry, said the restrictions were issued for the
two convicts' safety ahead of their execution.

He declined to say whether a date had been set for the two to
face the firing squad.

A spokesman for the Attorney General's Office, Kemas Yahya,
said recently the executions would take place within 30 days
after the Attorney General's Office received a copy of the
President's July 9 rejection of the convicts' clemency pleas.
--JP