Indonesia President Wants Foreign Drug Traffickers Killed Now

By Jeralyn, Section Foreign Affairs
Posted on Fri Jan 09, 2015 at 09:08:00 AM EST
Tags: Bali, Kerobokan Prison, Bali 9 (all tags)

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Indonesia has a new president, Joko Widodo. In December, he pledged to get tough on the drug traffickers sentenced to death, including the foreign prisoners who have languished for years in Bali's hellhole Kerobokan prison.

The inmates will be taken to the prison at Nusa Kambangan, an island off the coast of Java, where they will be executed by a 10-person firing squad from the Central Java Police’s Mobile Brigade Unit (Brimob). Basically, they are tied to a wooden cross and shot.

Last week he rejected clemency for Bali 9 inmate Myuran Sukumaran, convicted in 2005 of attempting to smuggle 8.3 kilograms of heroin from Bali to Australia. Myuran gives his reaction to the news here. [More...]

Sukumaran and Andrew Chan were the only two of the Bali 9 sentenced to death. Myuran and Andrew submitted clemency bids to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, but he left office without ruling on them. On December 30, current President Joko denied Myuran's bid for clemency (Andrew's has not yet been decided.)

It's also clear that President Joko has no clue about the facts of the Bali 9 case. It seems to be a rubber-stamped decision.

Mr Joko seemed ignorant of the young man's specific circumstances. When asked why he had been so hardline when the Bali Nine were taking drugs out of the country, not bringing them in, Mr Joko replied: "Says who that he was taking them out?"

The Bali Nine plot of April, 2005, involved couriers exporting 8.2kg of heroin from Bali to Australia. Sukumaran was caught in a hotel room, while others were at Bali airport.

Mr Joko said: "I did not hand down the death sentence. My obligation is to decide on clemency, and I won't grand clemency to drugs convicts"

Why do My