Indonesia Executes Nigerian Drug Offender

In spite of pleas from the international communities for the Indonesia government not to execute six foreigners caught for trafficking drugs into the Asian country, latest reports inform that all the drug traffickers were executed on Sunday, January, 18, 2015.

Among the executed drug offenders was a Nigerian, Daniel Enemuo, also known as Diarrssouba.

According to reports, the 38 year-old Nigerian was convicted in 2004.

The Indonesian authorities had announced the execution on January 16, 2015, Friday, saying it would be the first execution under new President Joko Widodo.

The planned executions were announced by the Indonesian Attorney General’s Office.

The European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini had prior to the execution described the move as “deeply regrettable”.

Mogherini also urged Indonesia to establish a moratorium on the death penalty.

Meanwhile, hours after the Indonesian authorities carried out the execution, Brazil and the Netherlands have recalled their ambassadors from the country.

The two countries also expressed fury on Sunday after Jakarta defied their pleas and executed two of their citizens along with four other drug offenders.

The other convicts  that faced firing squad were from Vietnam, Malawi, Nigeria and Indonesia.

The six were the first people executed under new President Joko Widodo.

Indonesia has tough anti-drugs laws and Widodo, who took office in October, has disappointed rights activists by voicing support for capital punishment despite his image as a reformist.

He defended the executions, saying drugs ruin lives.

A spokesman for Brazilian President Dilma Roussef said she was “distressed and outraged” after Indonesia ignored her last-ditch pleas and put to death Marco Archer Cardoso Moreira, who was convicted of smuggling cocaine into Indonesia in 2004.

“Using the death penalty, which is increasingly rejected by the international community, seriously affects relations between our countries,” the spokesman said in a statement.

The Brazilian ambassador to Jakarta was being recalled for consultations, the spokesman added.

Also, the Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders said the Netherlands had also recalled its ambassador over the execution of Dutchman Ang Kiem Soei.

“My heart goes out to their families, for whom this marks a dramatic end to years of uncertainty,” Koenders said. “The Netherlands remains opposed to the death penalty.”

Dutch King Willem-Alexander and Prime Minister Mark Rutte had been in contact with the Indonesian president about the matter, he said, and the government had done “all in its power” to try to halt the execution.

Widodo on Sunday defended the death penalty in a Facebook post.

“The war against the drug mafia should not be half-hearted measures, because drugs have really ruined the good life of the drug users and their families,” he said.

“There is no happiness in life to be gained from drug abuse. The country must be present and fight with drug syndicates head-on,” he added.

“A healthy Indonesia is Indonesia without drugs.”

All the prisoners, who had been sentenced to death between 2000 and 2011, were executed shortly after midnight, the attorney general’s office said.

The 53-year-old Brazilian, who was caught with drugs stashed in the frame of his paraglider at Jakarta airport, and the 62-year-old Dutchman were executed on Nusakambangan Island, home to a high-security prison, off the main island of Java.

A Nigerian, Daniel Enemuo; Namaona Denis, from Malawi; and an Indonesian woman, Rani Andriani, were executed at the same location.

The sixth convict, Vietnamese woman Tran Thi Bich Hanh, was executed in the Boyolali district in central Java.

They were all caught attempting to smuggle narcotics apart from the Dutchman, who was sentenced to death for operating a huge factory producing the drug ecstasy.

It was gathered that all the offenders had their appeals to the president for clemency rejected last month.

As at the time of compiling this report, the Nigerian government was yet to release a statement over the execution of Enemuo.

Source: Legit.ng