Indonesia Set to Execute 14 Drug Convicts by Firing Squad

 

Indonesia is set to carry out executions by firing squad of 14 people convicted of drug trafficking.

 

CNN.com reports that the executions are set to take place this week. The prisoners are being held in Nusakambangan prison island in Cilacap in Central Java.

 

Fourteen prisoners accused of drug trafficking were set to be executed last year as well, although one was spared at the last moment.

 

The Indonesian government continues to maintain a hard line on the death penalty, despite the protests of human rights organizations. The government says a strict policy is necessary in order to curb the drug trafficking epidemic in the country.

 

 

Human rights organizations disagree, however.

 

“President Jokowi should acknowledge the death penalty's barbarity and avoid a potential diplomatic firestorm by sparing the lives of the 14 or more people facing imminent execution," said Phelim Kine, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, in a statement released Wednesday.

 

Amnesty International echoed the statement of Human Rights Watch, saying that Indonesia’s president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono “will be putting his government on the wrong side of history if her proceeds with a fresh round of executions.”