Indonesia executes drug convicts, defying global anger

[Cornhack]

Death sentence may be barbaric but even more so is the ten years of waiting, wondering, hoping, losing hope, and enduring life in a rotten jail. This is double punishment. May those who died and their families find peace.

How long before Australia opens their doors again to refugees via Indonesia?

[fred Kubasa]

I don't know what Indonesia exports but believe incoming orders from many nations will slow and, maybe, stop altogether. Indonesia is a country that needs much from the world and may find, also, that the world is " out of stock" , charitable. voluntary, donations and non catastrophic aid will dry up + + +

[hugh2121]

These people were arrested for smuggling drugs OUT of Indonesia. It follows then, that Indonesia is a hub supplying drugs to other countries via mules. I can't believe that any CIVILISED government would not have offered a deal on their murders (yes, I said murders) in exchange for details about the organisation which supplied them. I can think of only ONE reason that such an offer would not be forthcoming.........tea money? Expensive tea perhaps.

Remembering the bribe demanded to avoid death sentence.

Edited April 29, 2015 by hugh2121

[evadgib]

I'm generally pro death penalty and wish UK had retained it for the likes of the killers of Pte Lee Rigby. However I see little difference between how these prisoners were treated (commanders taking 'selfies' on the plane, empty coffins & crosses baring date of demise being triumphantly paraded to the media in front of parents) to the way ISIS behave prior to dishing out their own particular brand of justice. Both constitute torture in the eyes of the international community & should be dealt with accordingly.

Edited April 29, 2015 by evadgib

[boomerangutang]

Bill Shorten, Australia's Opposition Leader, and author of several Mills and Boon novels, replied to the executions in the following manner:

".....Yet today, they were made to pay for one stupid decision of 10 years ago with their lives...."

As alleged ring leaders of the Bali Nine, I doubt very much that this incident ten years ago was their first involvement in drug trafficking. I also doubt, had they not been caught, that it would have been their last.

Lots and lots of stupid decisions Mr Shorten?

You're assuming things about others supposed actions, then adding fuel to the 'hang 'em high' frenzy - based on your assumptions. If I was a judge and executioner, would you be ok with me sentencing your son to death, based on my assumptions of what your son may have done prior to, or after he was caught carrying a package of illegal goods?

[Linky]

Australia has withdrawn thier ambassador and suspended political ties with indonesia.

These people knew the laws and consequences, they didn't give a single thought about the lives of others they were destroying. They broke the law and paid for it. The execution of drug dealers is no loss to society, the trash has been taken out.

The best retaliatory action the Australians could do would be to issue the most stern 'do not travel' warning to Indonesia - the one that voids all travel insurance policies and implement economic sanctions.

All but one of those executed were foreigners and probably not of the same religion which suggests some politician sabre rattling to gain a few votes.

This country needs to be punished for its barbaric and medieval ways.

Well Bali would be on its knees in no time without Australian tourists.

There is strong support within Indonesia for the death penalty and anti-drugs actions, so this is also political.

Not only Indonesia has the death penalty........do you also condone punishing say the USA?

Yes to the question.

Unfortunately the Balinese Hindus are a small minority in Indonesia who are rarely heard.

Does the US have death penalty for drug couriers?

[Linky]

Chan founded an orphanage a couple of months ago but refused to go public about it.

[boomerangutang]

The fact is, Indonesia has the death penalty. These guys knew the penalty, tried it on anyway and got caught. Can't really see what the problem is.

.....take the blinders off, maybe you can see better. Some people seem to have propelyne glycol instead of blood, flowing in their veins.

[mommysboy]

Militarty retaliation is mandatory. Hope the Aussies don't fold.

[Michael8511]

I'm against death penalty where ever it may be. All these drug mules that are carrying drugs over the borders have to be penalized to try to stop it. The bad things is that the mules are killed not the money makers. When it come to protesting yes it's fine but then do it to all countries that have death penalty don't just single out Muslim countries. I think the only one protested against US death penalty was the pope but it was to deaf ear too, the UN didn't even bather to say something about the U.S. Death penalty scared of back fire from the religious tea dippers.

[boomerangutang]

Pick any one of your favorite musicians, and chances are 50/50 he/she was involved with illegal drugs. Now take half your favorite musicians and have them executed when just out of their teens. Bye bye to Ray Charles, U2, Kinks, Beatles, Muddy Waters, Janis Joplin, Doors, Rolling Stones, Led Zep, Thelonious Monk, Yardbirds, Police, Elton, Fleetwood Mac, Miles Davis, Tina Turner, Johnny Cash, The Who, Deep Purple, Eagles, ..... nearly all of them, plus tens of thousands of other great musicians would have been killed by Indonesian authorities before they (the musicians) put out their respective 2nd albums.

[Anthony5]

Australia has withdrawn thier ambassador and suspended political ties with indonesia.

These people knew the laws and consequences, they didn't give a single thought about the lives of others they were destroying. They broke the law and paid for it. The execution of drug dealers is no loss to society, the trash has been taken out.

The best retaliatory action the Australians could do would be to issue the most stern 'do not travel' warning to Indonesia - the one that voids all travel insurance policies and implement economic sanctions.

All but one of those executed were foreigners and probably not of the same religion which suggests some politician sabre rattling to gain a few votes.

This country needs to be punished for its barbaric and medieval ways.

The best the Australian government could do is put it in large red text on their website that you get the death penalty when dealing drugs in Indonesia, and that they are not gonna intervene.

Edited April 29, 2015 by Anthony5

[evadgib]

Excellent news to wake up to this morning. Really made my day.

Another Rah Rah Type

For me the rights and wrongs of the death penalty is a separate issue.

The fact is, Indonesia has the death penalty. These guys knew the penalty, tried it on anyway and got caught. Can't really see what the problem is.

See #67

[Anthony5]

Pick any one of your favorite musicians, and chances are 50/50 he/she was involved with illegal drugs. Now take half your favorite musicians and have them executed when just out of their teens. Bye bye to Ray Charles, U2, Kinks, Beatles, Muddy Waters, Janis Joplin, Doors, Rolling Stones, Led Zep, Thelonious Monk, Yardbirds, Police, Elton, Fleetwood Mac, Miles Davis, Tina Turner, Johnny Cash, The Who, Deep Purple, Eagles, ..... nearly all of them, plus tens of thousands of other great musicians would have been killed by Indonesian authorities before they (the musicians) put out their respective 2nd albums.

Maybe you should learn to comprehend the difference between a dealer and a user.

[JockPieandBeans]

Pick any one of your favorite musicians, and chances are 50/50 he/she was involved with illegal drugs. Now take half your favorite musicians and have them executed when just out of their teens. Bye bye to Ray Charles, U2, Kinks, Beatles, Muddy Waters, Janis Joplin, Doors, Rolling Stones, Led Zep, Thelonious Monk, Yardbirds, Police, Elton, Fleetwood Mac, Miles Davis, Tina Turner, Johnny Cash, The Who, Deep Purple, Eagles, ..... nearly all of them, plus tens of thousands of other great musicians would have been killed by Indonesian authorities before they (the musicians) put out their respective 2nd albums.

Not one to really disagree with much of what you post.

Now, lets just imagine for a minute that all of those people that you name, plus the 10's of 1000's of great musicians that you do not name. Have, at one time or another used drugs.

How many of them were stupid enough to go to Indonesia for their fix ?

If we, as Westerners, kept our noses out of other Sovereign Countries affairs, and dealt with our own Western Countries affairs. And other Countries kept their noses out of Western Countries affairs. Perhaps the World would be a much better place.

Just a thought.

[Songhua]

These people were arrested for smuggling drugs OUT of Indonesia. It follows then, that Indonesia is a hub supplying drugs to other countries via mules. I can't believe that any CIVILISED government would not have offered a deal on their murders (yes, I said murders) in exchange for details about the organisation which supplied them. I can think of only ONE reason that such an offer would not be forthcoming.........tea money? Expensive tea perhaps.

Remembering the bribe demanded to avoid death sentence.

Tea money, and throw in a pinch of ineptitude:

"....... Even with specific information from the AFP, Indonesian police inexplicably failed to monitor a Thai prostitute called Cherry Likit Bannakorn delivering two suitcases of heroin to Chan in Bali, claiming he had twice given them the slip in holiday crowds.

Ms Cherry flew out of Bali the day after the arrests and was detained but then released as she was passing through an immigration post on the Malaysian-Thai border. Thai police claimed they didn't have the correct paperwork to extradite her to Indonesia.

Some 10 years later, an Interpol notice still declares Ms Cherry a fugitive from justice but there seems to have been little effort in Thailand to find her.

On April 27, 2005, Indonesian police announced they had shot dead Man Singh Ghale, a Nepalese-born man with a long history of drug trafficking in Indonesia, whom they linked to the Bali nine operation."

http://www.smh.com.au/world/portrayal-of-chan-and-sukumaran-as-key-figures-may-have-damaged-chances-of-reprieve-20150209-139pr3.html

[BB24]

IMO the death penalty is wrong for ONLY one reason. That reason is - all people make mistakes and some are corrupt. There is always hope for the innocent in gaol, but you cannot take back an execution if/when later it is established that it was wrong/corrupt. Like the majority of people in Australia, myself included, the men executed today probably disagreed with the death sentance.

However, I have known a few people whose children's lives (and theirs) were destroyed by heroin (one died). And unlike the families of the men executed today, they were never in the public eye and never got any sympathy or support because of that. The crime these men did was not done in Australia. They went to a country that does have the death sentance and committed a crime there. They knew that and took the risk, in order to make a large amount of money, with little/no thought of the damage the drugs would do to families back in Australia.

Whilst I disagree with their execution, I have no sympathy for them and I hope this acts as a deterrent against others doing the same thing. I also accept that Indonesia has the right to enforce its own laws - and hopefullly to change them one day in the future. And I certainly hope Thailand does not reintroduce the death penalty. But if they do, and a few Australians get caught and are executed, they will get no sympathy from me - nor from the familes of some friends of mine.

[ttthailand]

Killing someone for marijuana is just wrong. It is legal in some countries.

It would be like killing Indonesian Muslims for shisha tobacco in Australia.

I can understand regarding hard additive drugs but Pot ?

[webfact]

Indonesia confirms it executed 8 for drug smuggling
By TATAN SYUFLANA

CILACAP, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia brushed aside last-minute appeals and executed eight people convicted of drug smuggling on Wednesday, although a Philippine woman was granted a stay of execution.

Attorney General Muhammad Prasetyo confirmed at a news conference hours after the deaths had been widely reported that each of the eight had been executed simultaneously at 12:35 a.m. (1735 GMT) by a 13-member firing squad. Medical teams confirmed their deaths three minutes later, he said.

"The executions have been successfully implemented, perfectly," Prasetyo said. "All worked, no misses," he said of the deaths of two Australians, four Nigerians, a Brazilian and an Indonesian man.

Prasetyo early announced that Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso had been granted a stay of execution while the Philippines investigates her case.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced that Australia will withdraw its ambassador from Jakarta in response to the executions of two Australians, Myuran Sukumaran, 33, and Andrew Chan, 31.

"These executions are both cruel and unnecessary," Abbott told reporters.

He said it was cruel because Chan and Sukumaran had spent a decade in jail before being executed and "unnecessary because both of these young Australians were fully rehabilitated while in prison."

Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff said in a statement the execution of a second Brazilian citizen in Indonesia this year "marks a serious event in the relations between the two countries."

Brazil had asked for a stay of execution for Rodrigo Gularte, 42, on humanitarian grounds because he was schizophrenic.

Prasetyo dismissed concerns that Indonesia had done long-term damage to bilateral relations through the executions.

"It's just a momentary reaction," he said. "What we're doing is carrying out court decisions."

He said that the message was "do not try to smuggle drugs in Indonesia, because we will be harsh and firm against drug-related crimes."

Michael Chan, brother of Andrew Chan, who became a Christian pastor during his decade in prison and married an Indonesian woman on Monday, reacted with anger.

"I have just lost a courageous brother to a flawed Indonesian legal system. I miss you already RIP my Little Brother," he tweeted.

In a statement, the Sukumaran and Chan families, said: "In the 10 years since they were arrested, they did all they could to make amends, helping many others. They asked for mercy, but there was none."

Mary Jane Veloso's mother, Celia, said that the stay of execution for her daughter was nothing short of a miracle.

Presidential spokesman Herminio Coloma thanked Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo for giving due consideration to the appeal of his Philippine counterpart, Benigno Aquino III. He said the reprieve provides an opportunity for her testimony to expose how a criminal syndicate duped her into being an unwitting accomplice and courier in drug trafficking.

There were cheers from the more than 250 Veloso supporters who held a candlelight vigil outside the Indonesian Embassy in Manila.

Veloso, 30, was arrested in 2010 at the airport in the central Indonesian city of Yogyakarta, where officials discovered about 2.5 kilograms (5.5 pounds) of heroin hidden in her luggage.

Prasetyo said Veloso was granted a stay of execution because her alleged boss has been arrested in the Philippines, and the authorities there requested Indonesian assistance in pursuing the case.

"This delay did not cancel the execution. We just want to give a chance in relation with the legal process in the Philippines," he said.

The woman who allegedly recruited Veloso to work in Kuala Lumpur, Maria Kristina Sergio, surrendered to police in the Philippines on Monday, Deputy Police Director-General Leonardo A. Espina said.

Sukumaran and Chan requested that their bodies be flown back to Australia. Nigerian Martin Anderson chose to be buried in the West Java town of Bekasi, and fellow Nigerian Raheem Agbaje, wanted to be buried in the East Java town of Madiun where he had been a prisoner. Indonesian Zainal Abidin is to be buried in Cilacap.

The wishes of two other Nigerians — Sylvester Obiekwe Nwolise and Okwudili Oyatanze — as well as those of Gularte, the Brazilian, have yet to be made public.

Originally, 10 inmates were to be executed, but Frenchman Serge Atlaoui was excluded because he still had an outstanding court appeal against Jokowi's rejection of his clemency application.

The government says Atlaoui will face a firing squad alone if his appeal is rejected by the Administrative Court.

Jokowi's predecessor, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, canceled a trip to Australia this week because of growing anger over the executions. He was to give a speech at the University of Western Australian in the city of Perth on Friday on Australia's diplomatic and economic relationships with its Asia-Pacific neighbors, including Indonesia.
___

Associated Press writers Rod McGuirk in Canberra, Australia, Kristen Gelineau in Sydney, Niniek Karmini and Ali Kotarumalos in Jakarta, Indonesia, Jim Gomez, Teresa Cerojano, video journalist Joeal Calupitan and photographer Alberto Marquez in Manila, Philippines, Angela Charlton in Paris and Adriana Gomez-Licon in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, contributed to this report.


-- (c) Associated Press 2015-04-29

[JockPieandBeans]

Killing someone for marijuana is just wrong. It is legal in some countries.

It would be like killing Indonesian Muslims for shisha tobacco in Australia.

I can understand regarding hard additive drugs but Pot ?

Most of these people were in possession of heroin. Nothing to do with pot.

[ezzra]

Now that all is said and done, there are some lessons to be learned here, one is that the Australian government

will not spare any effort to save the sorry ass of convicted crimeless, PM FM and MP's present and past

will beg, grovel, threat, offer money, boycott and prostate themselves all in order to show how liberal

and humane they're, sending the wrong message to would be drug's smugglers that Australia will protect

you in what ever crimes you commit,

Second, hopefully some would be offenders will heed the message of keeping away from such activities,

Last but not least, was it worth it all? I'm sure the last thoughts of the condemn would have been 'what

in god's name am I doing here and how did I get in to this mess in the first place?'........

[jackanapes]

and rightly so we are talking about dangerous criminals drug runners people who don't give a toss about the effect of drugs on others nasty they deserved the penalty of death .

[ttthailand]

Killing someone for marijuana is just wrong. It is legal in some countries.

It would be like killing Indonesian Muslims for shisha tobacco in Australia.

I can understand regarding hard additive drugs but Pot ?

Most of these people were in possession of heroin. Nothing to do with pot.

perhaps I am mistaken but I thought two were busted smuggling Marijuana. Can anyone confirm for sure ...

[Neurath]

These drug smugglers are no more responsible for the actions of irresponsible drug takers than are gun dealers for the irresponsible actions of gun owners.

[Chao Lao Beach]

Australia has withdrawn thier ambassador and suspended political ties with indonesia.

What about the $600,000,000 ($600mill) Australia will GIVE to Indonesia this year alone. Put ya money where your mouth is Tony.

[baboon]

We can but you can't:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-32318131

[laislica]

Let us for a moment assume that they were convicted by a real court, on real evidence - not by a mickey mouse court, <deleted>land style.

The death penalty would still be a horror, an abomination.

But it would be a horror, an abomination that is not high on my list. After all, those people were serial murderers.

You've lost me there, who murdered who ?

Drug sellers murder their customers. Slowly.

Just like Doctors do with the prescription drugs from Big Pharma.

How about execute Big Pharma then?

Death from prescription drugs is apparently the third biggest killer in the USA!

[Radar501]

Bill Shorten, Australia's Opposition Leader, and author of several Mills and Boon novels, replied to the executions in the following manner:

".....Yet today, they were made to pay for one stupid decision of 10 years ago with their lives...."

As alleged ring leaders of the Bali Nine, I doubt very much that this incident ten years ago was their first involvement in drug trafficking. I also doubt, had they not been caught, that it would have been their last.

Lots and lots of stupid decisions Mr Shorten?

Almost certainly true, Andrew Chan first tried heroin as a 14 year old and was running with some very bad people. But the fact is after getting caught both he and Myuran had turned their lives around and become useful members of society.I reckon teens already on the wrong path are much more likely to listen to an ex-con telling them to wake up rather than some middle class social worker.

But sadly it was not to be. If it's any consolation to their families it will be in the warm tributes to the two from many who knew them in prison, at least there their lives were not in vain.

You forgot to mention that they had also found God. If I was rotting away on Death Row, I imagine I would be fast-tracking my display of being a useful member of society. It might not help my chances of clemency, but it certainly wouldn't hurt, would it?

But, as you say, at least their lives were not in vain, and others will learn from their mistakes. Martyrdom has arrived for these two.

[DavisH]

Australia has withdrawn thier ambassador and suspended political ties with indonesia.

What about the $600,000,000 ($600mill) Australia will GIVE to Indonesia this year alone. Put ya money where your mouth is Tony.

He won't. Even if he cared he doesn't have the balls to do that. I'd say most Australians, while not supporting the death penalty, have quite a lot opinion of drug smugglers, especially those bringing in heroin to their country. What he has done is a very minor show of being dissatisfied with the use the the death penalty. These guys knew the consequences of their actions. They should have known what could happen if caught.

[Rykbanlor]

Killing someone for marijuana is just wrong. It is legal in some countries.

It would be like killing Indonesian Muslims for shisha tobacco in Australia.

I can understand regarding hard additive drugs but Pot ?

Most of these people were in possession of heroin. Nothing to do with pot.

perhaps I am mistaken but I thought two were busted smuggling Marijuana. Can anyone confirm for sure ...

Yes for sure - 100% it was 8 pounds of Heroin or so. Nothing to do with pot, you may have your wires crossed with some other story.

Anyhow, Despite the zealous hang em high brigade and all their predictable comments, I don't think these men deserved to die. The war on drugs and all that it entails, and the stories of these lowly drug smugglers and the choices they made are a lot more complex than "Drugs are bad, drug peddling scum deserve to die".

The realisation that the current war on drugs has achieved nothing, except filling up prisons with users and street dealers and lining the pockets of the top tier druglords, is starting to gain traction around the world, but change is slow and altering peoples perceptions is slower. Hopefully one day though this will change.