Despite protests from governments and rights groups, nationals of Nigeria and other drug convicts will face the firing squad in Indonesia this week after authorities gave notice of their executions in the early hours of Tuesday.
The country’s the deputy Pakistani ambassador in Jakarta, Syed Zahid Raza, declared on Tuesday that the convicts, who include a Pakistani, could be executed around midnight Friday after officials signalled the start of a 72-hour notice period at a meeting with diplomats.
Nationals from Pakistan, India, Nigeria and Zimbabwe are expected to be executed alongside Indonesians.
Officials explained however that no Europeans or Australians would be included in the third round of executions under President Joko Widodo.
Indonesia sparked international outrage with its last batch of executions in April 2015 when it put to death seven foreigners, including two Australians.
But Widodo had insisted that Jakarta was fighting a war against drugs and traffickers must be harshly punished.
Pakistan had so far publicly voiced the most concern about the upcoming executions, and its foreign ministry Tuesday summoned the Indonesian ambassador to Islamabad to convey their concerns about the case of their national, 52-year-old Zulfiqar Ali.
Activists said that Ali, sentenced to death in 2005 for heroin possession, was beaten and tortured into confessing and did not receive a fair trial.
Rights groups have also called on Indonesia to halt the planned executions, citing worries about irregularities with some convictions. In a statement, Amnesty International urged “the country’s authorities to halt all executions and to take immediate steps to ensure that the cases of all those under sentence of death are reviewed by an independent and impartial body”.
Authorities have been making preparations, with death row drug convicts transferred to Nusakambangan prison island, where Indonesia puts convicts to death, and 14 prisoners reportedly placed in isolation, an usual step before executions. About 1,500 police were being deployed around Cilacap, the town closest to Nusakambangan, visitors have been barred for a week and Muslim and Christian spiritual counsellors were seen crossing to the island.
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