Brazilian
Marco Archer Cardoso Moreira and Dutchman Ang Kiem Soei among six convicts
executed by firing squad under tough anti-drugs laws
 |
| Brazilian citizen Marco Archer Cardoso Moreira, one of the six people executed for drugs offences in Indonesia. Photograph: Beawiharta/Reuters |
Brazil and
the Netherlands have recalled their ambassadors from Indonesia and expressed
fury after Jakarta defied their pleas and executed two of their citizens along
with four other drug offenders.
The other
convicts to face a 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 the 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 on Sunday.
The
Brazilian ambassador to Jakarta was being recalled for consultations, the
spokesman added.
Meanwhile,
the Dutch foreign minister, Bert Koenders, said the Netherlands had also
recalled its ambassador over the execution of Dutchman Ang Kiem Soei, and in a
statement described all six deaths as “terribly sad”.
“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.”
The Dutch
monarch, 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 at
the high-security prison on Nusakambangan island, 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.
All had
their appeals to the president for clemency rejected last month.
Jakarta had
an unofficial moratorium on executions for several years from 2008 but resumed
capital punishment again in 2013. There were no executions last year.
Widodo,
known as Jokowi, has taken a particularly hard line towards people on death row
for narcotics offences, insisting they will not receive a presidential pardon
since Indonesia is facing an “emergency” over drug use.
Following
Sunday’s executions, the number of people on death row for drugs-related
offences stood at 60, around half of whom were foreigners, said a spokesman for
the national narcotics agency.
Widodo’s
tough stance has sparked concern for other foreigners sentenced to death,
particularly two Australians who were part of the “Bali Nine” group caught
trying to smuggle heroin out of Indonesia in 2005.
One of the
pair, Myuran Sukumaran, also had his appeal for clemency rejected last month
but authorities say he will be executed with fellow Australian Andrew Chan as
they committed their crime together.
Chan is
still awaiting the outcome of his appeal for clemency.
Also on
death row is British grandmother Lindsay Sandiford. She was sentenced to death
in 2013 after being caught trying to smuggle cocaine into Bali.
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