A total of 133 convicts are on death row in Indonesia, the country’s Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna H. Laoly said on Wednesday, days after the execution of six people sparked a fierce debate and a diplomatic backlash.
Published on Jan 21, 2015
JAKARTA (Jakarta Post/Asia News Network) – A total of 133 convicts are on death row in Indonesia, the country’s Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna H. Laoly said on Wednesday, days after the execution of six people sparked a fierce debate and a diplomatic backlash.
“We want to give accurate information, the number of death-row convicts in various prisons is 133,” Laoly said in a hearing with the House of Representatives’ Commission III on law.
He said 57 of the 133 were drug convicts, two were terrorism convicts and 74 were general-crime convicts.
The six people executed on Sunday had been convicted of drug offences and were the first to face the firing squad under the administration of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.
Brazil, the Netherlands, and Nigeria, whose nationals were among the six convicts, recalled their ambassadors in protest. Several Indonesian civic bodies also called for the death penalty to be abolished.
But Jokowi has rejected any possibility of compromise, arguing that rampant drug use has placed the country in a “state of emergency” over the years.
Attorney General Prasetyo said on Tuesday that following the six executions on Sunday, the Attorney General’s Office would execute 60 more death-row convicts but he declined to mention when or where the executions would be carried out.