Indonesia: Appeals, Clemency ‘Hold Back’ Executions There are currently 131 people on death row in the country.

There are currently 131 people on death row in the country.

Inmates on death row are abusing appeals and requests for clemency to avoid their sentences, according to the Presidential Advisory Council for inter-religious affairs.

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has argued against the death penalty on concerns that it goes against the international trend for the abolition of capital punishment and because it puts the country’s own citizens at risk overseas.

In March, Adami Wilson, 48, a drug trafficker from Malawi, was executed by firing squad in Indonesia’s first execution of a convicted felon since 2008.

That same month, a Saudi court sentenced an Indonesian housemaid to death after she was convicted of murdering her employers’ four-year-old child, the Saudi Gazette reported.

In April last year, local media reported that 25 Indonesian maids were on death row in Saudi Arabia, while 22 others had been pardoned and sent home.

In June 2011, Indonesian maid Ruyati binti Sapubi, 54, was beheaded after she was convicted of killing her Saudi employer, prompting Indonesia to recall its ambassador from the kingdom.
While Indonesian courts continue to hand down death sentences, the government has been mulling commuting such sentences as part of a wider rejection of capital punishment. Prior to the resumption of executions this year, three Islamic militants involved in the 2002 Bali bombings were the last convicts to be executed in Indonesia, in November 2008.

The latest executions came two weeks ago, when three convicted murderers at Nusakambangan Penitentiary in Central Java were executed by firing squad.

Amnesty International also said that the government’s move to resume executions of its death row inmates was contradictory to previous statements and actions taken by government officials.
The death penalty in Indonesia has come under particular scrutiny because of the number of foreign nationals currently on death row, mostly for drug offenses.

In January, a court in Bali sentenced Lindsay Sandiford, 56, from Britain, to death for attempting to smuggle cocaine into the country. She had an initial appeal rejected shortly after, but is still trying to get her sentence commuted.

Two members of an Australian drug smuggling gang known as the Bali Nine who were arrested in 2005 are on death row, while seven others face lengthy jail terms. The pair, Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, are awaiting a response to their pleas for clemency to the president.
There are currently 131 people on death row in the country. Jakarta Globe