[Deathpenalty]death penalty news-----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

August 8


INDONESIA:

Drug traffickers deserve death sentence: Amien


National Mandate Party (PAN) leader Amien Rais said on Saturday he agreed
with the government's recent decision to execute Indian national Ayodya
Prasad Chaubery, who had been sentenced to death for a major drug offense.

"I agree that drug traffickers should be given the death penalty because
they are killing our youth," Amien said after attending a gathering of
Muhammadiyah, the 2nd-largest Muslimorganization in the country, which he
once headed.

Indonesia executed Chaubey on Thursday, almost 10 years after he was
sentenced to death for smuggling 12 kilograms of heroin into the country,
despite appeals from local and international institutions.

However, Amien reminded that protests by certain quarters against the
death sentence should also be heeded because they were based on reasonable
arguments.

He acknowledged, however, that from a purely religious point of view, drug
traffickers deserved to be put to death, he said.

Amien said capital punishment for drug traffickers was not a violation of
the principles of human rights because if they remained alive, their
actions would result in the death of others.

(source: The Jakarta Post)