'Our drugs epidemic affects young people'- Indonesia executes 3 Nigerians and 1 Indonesian

The Indonesian government on Friday said it had executed four drug traffickers, saying also that the execution of 10 others it had said would also be put to death soon, had been postponed.


The convicts were shot by firing squad at the Nusa Kambangan penal island shortly after midnight on Friday local time (1700 GMT on Thursday) while heavy rain was falling, according to TV reports.

Deputy Attorney General Noor Rachmad also confirmed the executions to reporters, according to AFP news agency but Rachmad did not say why the 10 other drug convicts were not executed.

Al Jazeera’s Step Vaessen, reporting from Jakarta, said among those who were executed were three Nigerian citizens and one Indonesian.

“All the others are still waiting their trials to be reexamined,” Vassen said. “It’s not very clear what actually were the last conclusions why these executions didn’t take place. But the government is saying it has something to do with legal issues and that there had been “a lot of pressure” until the last minute to stop the executions."


Recall that one of the Nigerians refused to sign documents, It is unclear if he's one of those already executed.

The executions were the third set carried out since President Joko Widodo got into power in October 2014. His two-year-old administration will have executed more people than were executed in the previous decade. Fourteen were put to death last year. One prisoner, a woman from the Philippines, was spared the death penalty at the last minute.

The European Union and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called on Indonesia to impose an immediate ban on executions, and the Indian and Pakistani governments also made urgent efforts to save two nationals among the condemned.

(Are they saying they Nigerian government didn't make great efforts)?

The Indonesian government said the death penalty is necessary for such crimes because the country was facing a drugs epidemic, particularly affecting young people.

Critics however argue that capital punishment is not an effective deterrent and some have also questioned the accuracy of the government’s drug abuse statistics.

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies