[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

June 27


INDONESIA:

Indonesia to speed up drug executions


INDONESIA says it will speed up the execution process of drug traffickers,
in a major blow for three Australians on death row for heroin smuggling.

As authorities prepared for the executions last night of 2 Nigerian heroin
smugglers, Attorney-General Hendarman Supandji said other drug offenders
on death row could expect their cases to be expedited.

The head of Indonesia's anti-drugs group also said executions must take
place more quickly to deter traffickers.

"To give them a lesson, drug traffickers must be executed immediately,"
Police chief and National Anti-Narcotic Body chairman General Sutanto
said.

"With a quick trial and execution process it will give a deterrent effect
to the perpetrators, and perpetrators-to-be," he said.

The comments are a blow for the 3 Australians on death row over the failed
Bali 9 plot to smuggle more than eight kilograms of heroin into Australia
in 2005.

The Nigerians were expected to be the 1st drug offenders put to death in
Indonesia since 2004, and the 1st since the Bali 9 were arrested.

"The sentences are a grim reminder of how serious  the issue of the death
penalty is," said Darwin-based lawyer Colin MacDonald, QC, who represents
Bali 9 death-row inmate Scott Rush.

Rush, who was a drug mule in the Bali 9 plot, and ringleaders Andrew Chan
and Myuran Sukumaran, failed in a legal challenge to Indonesia's harsh
drug laws last year. They still have the option of seeking a judicial
review of their death sentences, and a clemency appeal to the President.

Mr MacDonald said he was working hard to ensure Rush escaped the firing
squad.

Officials said the 2 Nigerians had been moved to a special cell at their
prison on Nusakambangan Island, off Central Java, before their executions
by firing squad.

Hansen Anthony Nwaolisa, 40, was sentenced to die for trafficking 600
grams of heroin in 43 capsules, which he had swallowed in Pakistan before
arriving at Jakarta airport.

Okoye was caught carrying 3.8 kilograms of heroin in the lining of 2
pieces of luggage at Jakarta airport, after arriving from India.

(source: AAP)