June 21
INDONESIA:
Indonesia may soon begin execution of death-row drug offenders: Da'1
Indonesian authorities may soon begin the execution of the many drug
offenders currently on death row, National Police Chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar
said on Sunday.
"The National Police has readied troops to conduct theexecutions," Da'i
said at an anti-drug rally here.
"The police will only conduct the executions once an order had been issued
by the prosecutor's office. Hopefully, they (the executions) will be
announced soon," he said.
The head of the National Agency on Narcotics (BNN), Comr. Gen. Togar
Sianipar, told journalists separately after attending the same rally, that
there were now four people who had their demand for a presidential pardon
rejected.
"The president has already rejected four demands for clemency," he said,
adding that he planned to query the head of the Supreme Court and the
Attorney General over why orders for their executions have not been
issued.
He mentioned no names but said that one of them was currently detained in
Medan, North Sumatra province.
The Indonesian courts have passed death sentences in recent years on at
least two dozen people for drug offenses. Most are foreigners.
None of the drug traffickers sentenced in recent years has so far been
executed because of the drawn-out appeals process.
Da'i also said that according to data from BNN, the number of drug users
has spiraled in recent years.
The number of known users had risen from 1,833 in 1999 to 7,140 in 2003,
he said.
(source: Agence France Presse)
