Overnight, six people, including foreigners, were put to death under Indonesia’s notoriously harsh anti-drug laws, the first executions to be carried out by new President Joko Widodo.
The Sydney Morning Herald report that the six were killed by firing squad just after midnight, in separate executions across the country. Daniel Enemou, of Nigeria, and Namoona Denis, of Malawi, were executed at Nusakambangan Island prison.
Indonesian woman Rani Andriani faced the firing squad, alongside Brazilian Marco Archer Cardoso Moreira and Ang Kiem Soei, of the Netherlands. A Vietmanese woman, Tran Thi Bich Hahn, was killed in a separate execution in the Boyolali district of central Java.
Brazil and The Netherlands have reacted angrily, withdrawing their ambassadors from Indonesia following the decision to go ahead with the controversial executions.
“My heart goes out to their families, for whom this marks a dramatic end to years of uncertainty,” said Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders. “The Netherlands remains opposed to the death penalty.”
Amnesty International have condemned the executions as “seriously regressive”, while the EU’s foreign policy chief has labelled them as “deeply regrettable,” and Brazil’s President Dilma Roussef says she is “distressed and outraged.”
Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, members of the infamous Bali Nine, remain on death row in Indonesia, and Prime Minister Tony Abbott recently promised that he would make the “strongest possible representations” for mercy for the pair.
Photo: Adek Berry via Getty Images
