JAKARTA (AFP) – Indonesia plans to put 16 convicts to death after next month’s Muslim Eid al-fitr, or Hari Raya, holiday, an official said Tuesday confirming executions were set to resume after a hiatus.
The death row convicts will be executed “immediately after” the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, Mohammad Rum, a spokesman for the attorney-general’s office, told AFP, but he did not give a precise date.
Ramadan ends with the Eid al-Fitr holiday, which falls in Indonesia on Jul 6 and 7. Rum did not say who would face the firing squad, but Indonesia has been waging a campaign against narcotics and in 2015 executed 14 drug convicts, mostly foreigners, sparking international outrage.There have been no executions since April last year, with Indonesia saying it was pausing capital punishment to focus on fixing its slowing economy.
Rum said the convicts would likely be put to death by firing squad on the prison island of Nusakambangan, off Java, where executions are usually carried out. There are scores of drug convicts on death row in Indonesia, among them foreigners including Frenchman Serge Atlaoui and Filipina Mary Jane Veloso, who were both pulled from the last round of executions.
