Indonesia will execute two Nigerians later tonight. Although this is more likely to be in the wee hours of Friday morning as executions normally take place around 2am for some reason. This must be a reminder to all those contemplating smuggling drugs; it simply is not worth your life!
Maybe the Attorney General, Hendarman Supandji, has decided to execute a few people in the hope of taking the heat off of himself and an ongoing corruption scandal which is more than likely see him removed as the revelations of involvement keep moving on up the food chain at the Office of the Attorney General.
However, the reasons aside for the first executions of drug traffickers since 2004, it must not be forgotten that these two individuals smuggled drugs, were caught, tried and convicted in a court of law, and will soon pay the ultimate price for their stupidity.
The National Police Chief, General Sutanto, has also gone on the record to say that the executions should act as a deterrent. Nevertheless, they won't there is no sustainable evidence to suggest that the risk of death is a deterrent to the smuggling of drugs. Some people are just so desperate that no matter what the risk is they will still try and smuggle drugs.
Hansen Anthony Nwaolisa was caught trafficking 600g heroin in 43 capsules from Pakistan in January 2001. Samuel Iwachekawu Okoye was caught with 3.8kg of heroin in his luggage after arriving from India in January 2001.
Both men were sentenced to death in mid-2001 and their final appeals for clemency were rejected in July 2004. They are currently in special holding cells at the Nusakambangan Prison in Central Java.
According to Amnesty International, "Experts in international law, including the top UN officials, have confirmed that applying the death penalty for drug-related offences is a breach of international law".
The latest figures state that there are almost 60 people on death row in Indonesia for drug related offences and of these almost half are foreigners.
