Amnesty International Pleads For Mercy As Indonesia Set To Execute Five Nigerians, Nine Others

Human rights group, Amnesty International, has taken steps to stop Indonesia from the imminent executions of 14 drug convicts, including five Nigerians.

The Group said the execution of the convicts would put Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s government on the wrong side of history.

Amnesty, on its website, said it received credible reports that at least 14 people could be executed this week. They included four Indonesians, a Pakistani, an Indian, a Zimbabwean, a Senegalese, a South African, and five Nigerians.

Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for South East Asia and the Pacific, Josef Benedict said:

“President Widodo’s era was supposed to represent a new start for human rights in Indonesia. Sadly, he could preside over the highest number of executions in the country’s democratic era at a time when most of the world has turned its back on this cruel practice.”

Indonesia has a strong record of fighting for the rights of its citizens abroad on death row, but that is a position that the authorities do not consistently uphold at home, where President Widodo has claimed that the death penalty is needed to deter drug crime.

Phelim Kine, the Group’s Deputy Asia Director, urged the president to commute the death sentences.

He said Widodo should acknowledge the death penalty’s barbarity and avoid a potential diplomatic firestorm by sparing the lives of the 14 or more people facing imminent execution.

He said more than 121 people were on death row in Indonesia, including 35 foreigners, mainly for drug-related crimes.

President Widodo has taken a tough stance against drug trafficking since his election in 2014, saying the country is facing a drug emergency.

Source: Nigeria Monitor