Two Thai men on death row to be executed later this month: Police
Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post/Medan
Two Thai citizens sentenced to death in 1994 for heroin possession will be executed by the end of September, North Sumatra Police chief Insp. Gen. Iwan Pandjiwinata announced on Wednesday.
He said his office received approval last Tuesday from prosecutors to execute Saelow Praseart, 62, and Namsong Sirilak, 32.
"We are planning the executions ... for late this month," Iwan told The Jakarta Post after attending a meeting at the governor's office to discuss preparations for the final round of the presidential election on Sept. 20.
He said the relevant authorities had yet to decide whether the two convicted drugs smugglers would face the firing squad together, or would be executed in turn.
However, he said the police preferred to execute the two men separately, and sometime in the two weeks after the presidential election.
"We will still discuss the plan with all the related agencies, particularly the local prosecutor's office," he said.
Hadiningtyas, a lawyer from the Medan Legal Institute representing the two convicts, confirmed plans for the immediate execution of his clients.
At the soonest, the executions of Praseart and Sirilak will be carried out on Sept. 23, he said.
"Our clients are prepared to be executed any time. It's no problem," Hadiningtyas told the Post.
The Medan District Court sentenced Sirilak and Praseart to death on Dec. 14, 1994, for smuggling 12.19 kilograms of heroin into Indonesia. The drugs were discovered in their bags.
The two Thai nationals were arrested on Jan. 24, 1994, hours after landing at Polonia International Airport in Medan. Also arrested was Indian national Ayodhya Prasadh Chaubey, who was executed on Aug. 5, 2004.
President Megawati Soekarnoputri turned down the Thais' plea for clemency after the Supreme Court dismissed their final appeals.
The planned executions would be the second and third of the year. The first execution was Chaubey, who died by firing squad in Medan.
In 2001, Indonesia executed two people who had been convicted of multiple murders 12 years earlier. Theirs were the first executions in six years.
The execution of Chaubey was carried out despite appeals by the Indian government, Amnesty International and the European Union to spare his life.
Local human rights groups also oppose the death sentence, arguing that it has been proven that the death sentence is not a deterrent to drug dealers.
However, antidrug activists have pressured the government to punish drug dealers with death in an effort to fight the rising incidence of drug abuse in the country, especially among the young.
Chaubey and the two Thai men are among the more than two dozen people on death row in Indonesia for drug offenses. Most of them are foreigners.
Three Indonesians -- including two women -- sentenced to death on drug charges have had their final appeals rejected.
Amnesty International has said that at least 66 people are facing capital punishment in Indonesia.