ndonesia set to execute drug smugglers

[Toramana]

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/04/indonesia-dismisses-graft-claim-executions-loom-150427210115327.html

Indonesia appears likely to press ahead with the executions of nine drug criminals on Tuesday, despite last-ditch appeals by Australia's foreign minister for a stay of execution so that claims of corruption during the trials of the two Australian prisoners could be investigated.
The families of the Australian convicts paid an anguished final visit to their loved ones on Tuesday, wailing in grief as ambulances carrying empty white coffins arrived at their prison.

Julie Bishop, Australia's foreign minister, told media that she had received a letter from Indonesia on Monday night that offered no indication of a reprieve for Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan.

Earlier in the day, she had asked for a stay in their executions, saying allegations in the Australian media that their judges had requested money to commute the death sentences were "very serious".
The two are among nine drug convicts, mostly foreigners, who are due to be executed by a firing squad as soon as Tuesday night.
However, Indonesian President Joko Widodo said that such concerns should have been conveyed a decade ago when the case went through the courts.
A former lawyer of the prisoners, Muhammad Rifan, told Australia's Fairfax Media on Monday that Indonesian judges had requested more than $100,000 in return for prison terms of less than 20 years.
But Rifan said the judges later told him they had been ordered by senior legal and government members in Jakarta to impose a death penalty, so the deal fell through.
Arrested in Bali
The members of the Bali Nine were arrested at the main airport on the holiday island of Bali in April 2005 for trying to smuggle 8.3kg of heroin to Australia.
The Indonesian authorities had been tipped off by Australia's Federal Police.
The seven other members of the Bali Nine, all Australians, have been jailed in Indonesia but do not face the death penalty.
Armanatha Nasir, a spokesman for Indonesia's foreign ministry, said Sukumaran and Chan had been given all the legal avenues to challenge their death sentences.
The country's attorney-general's office said the executions of all nine people on death row would proceed this week.

"I think it will happen this week as the preparations are 100 percent ready now," spokesman Tony Spontana said.

The prisoners were handed 72 hours' notice of their executions on Saturday, when representatives of their countries were also advised. Indonesia usually carries out executions at midnight.

The other seven who were informed at the weekend that they would face the firing squad are four Nigerians, an Indonesian, a Brazilian and a Filipina.
Spontana said a tenth prisoner, the Frenchman Sergei Atlaoui, would be spared for now as legal proceedings were still under way.

Among the condemned is a Brazilian man, Rodrigo Gularte, who has been diagnosed by Indonesian medics with schizophrenia, a mental illness.
Gularte, 42, was arrested in 2004 at a Jakarta airport after trying to enter the country with 6kg of cocaine hidden in a surfboard.

He was also sentenced to death in 2005.

Prison wedding
In Hong Kong, Filipino migrants ralied on behalf of Mary Jane Velose - a 30-year-old Filipina mother of two whose supporters say she was tricked into carrying a suitcase loaded with heroin.

Meanwhile, one of the Australians on death row, Andrew Chan, got married in the prison on Monday, his brother Michael Chan said after attending the wedding.

The marriage was Chan's "final wish" granted by Indonesian prison authorities.

"Yes there was a celebration inside the prison this afternoon with close family and friends; it's obviously a special occasion for them," Michael said.
"Yes, look, it's tough time but it's happy time at the same time. We just hope that the president somewhere will find some compassion and mercy for these two, young couple so they can carry on with their lives."

Indonesia executed six prisoners; from Brazil, Malawi, Nigeria, Vietnam, the Netherlands, and an Indonesian national, in January.

[Toramana]

Australia is up in arms against Indonesia. Why did you defy when I said to you "don't execute those people"?

[Toramana]

A comment.

"would personally kill any individual that provided my beloved children with drugs. Is the life of my child not as important to me as those executed were to their family? Hard drug addiction is a horrible thing, it destroys everyone, were it not for the traffickers and dealers demand would soon cease. The families of those executed can have my empathy but not my sympathy, to assist in the possible death of another is what these people do to make money. Shame they had to wait ten years for this outcome, it would have been more humane to do it sooner."

"Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia have their own law on drugs smuggling. You are already told twice that it's death for drug smuggling even before you land in these country. Once by the announcing stewardess, and from the arrival card which YOU sign as declaration. I don't see why so many people are upset or saying how wrong the executions are. You smuggle, u get death. Simple. And yes, u get less jail terms on murder. And Australia will prosecute anyone flying in with a half eaten burger. That's pretty inhumane I'd say, but hey, it's their law."

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[DaZahroJaam.]

Because they have such strict laws when it comes to drugs, the market for those providing it must have been damn good. They put themselves in that situation because they wanted to make good money.
If Indonesia lets anyone who is a foreigner to their laws get away with this sort of a crime, their country will fill up with foreigners turning their kids in to druggies in no time.. There would be no way of stopping that problem unless they stopped issuing visas to foreigners and that would just not work.
They had no choice but to execute these criminals and I don't blame them.

[Toramana]

DZJ, the following seems to be the real issue.

Despite huge efforts it has not been able to dictate to Indonesia what to do.


Does Australia have double standards for Bali Nine duo?

Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran are likely to be having their last meals. Kissing their families for the last time. Inhaling their last breaths.
They face being lined up in front of an Indonesian firing squad and shot.
If it doesn't happen tonight, it is expected to take place soon.
Australia has waged a protracted diplomatic battle to keep the two men alive.
If they die, that battle will have failed.
'Not innocent'
The plight of 31-year-old Chan and 34-year-old Sukumaran on death row in Indonesia has gripped Australia in recent months.
Most here, including human rights groups and politicians of all persuasions, are appalled by the death penalty.
And yet these were not innocent men, by any stretch of the imagination.
Following a tip-off from the Australian Police, (yes, that's right) they were convicted in Indonesia in 2006 of being the ringleaders of a gang trying to smuggle drugs out of Bali.
A man heats heroin in a spoon over a flame
Hundreds of Australians die from heroin overdoses every year
And not a few spliffs or a bag of grass stuffed down their underpants
But 18lb (8.3kg) of heroin, worth more than $400,000 at today's street value.
If that heroin had made it back to Australia it would have contributed to hundreds of shattered lives.
Teenage drug addicts found dead in back alleys, needles hanging from their arms, choked to death on their own vomit; grieving mothers, fathers, sons and daughters.
Back in 2005, Chan and Sukumaran presumably didn't care about those lives. They just wanted the money.
They didn't care too much about the risk either.
They were prepared to smuggle drugs out of a country notorious for its harsh treatment, including execution, of drug dealers.
At the time, the financial reward for Chan and Sukumaran was worth the risk of death by firing squad
They probably felt differently lately.
But do they deserve to be executed?
Most people in Australia, and for what it's worth, myself included, think not.
Their supporters, and the Australian government, argue the two men appear to have realised the error of their ways and reformed.
Chan's last wish was to be allowed to attend a church service. This week, in what looks to be one of his last acts, he married his girlfriend.
Hypocrisy
While in jail Sukumaran taught philosophy, English and graphic design to his fellow prisoners.
But in just about every country in the world, people agree that major league heroin dealers, even those who acknowledge their guilt, should be severely punished and banged up for a long time.
And there is a double standard with the story of Chan and Sukumaran.
With their case, and with other Australians put to death elsewhere in the past, the government in Canberra has strongly protested against the use of capital punishment.
It has usually happened in countries similar to Indonesia: for example, Malaysia executed the Australian heroin traffickers Michael McAuliffe, 38, in 1993, and Kevin Barlow, 28, and Brian Chambers, 29 in 1986.
A woman puts flowers on a tribute wall in Sydney for Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran
A woman places a tribute on a flower wall in Sydney as part of a vigil for the Bali 9 duo
Singapore executed 25-year-old Van Tuong Nguyen in 2005, hanging him after he was caught with heroin strapped to his body.
There always seems to be an assumption in the west that foreigners convicted in these countries are innocent, or that the justice system or the police involved are corrupt.
In the case of Chan and Sukumaran, some of that might apply. There are unsubstantiated allegations Indonesian judges offered to give the two men a shorter sentence in exchange for a bribe of about A$130,000 ($102,000; £67,000).
But Australia doesn't make too much of a song and dance about non-Australians being executed.
It doesn't make a point of criticising the United States, which has shot, electrocuted, hanged or poisoned to death more than 1,400 prisoners since 1976 and where more than 3,000 people are currently on death row.
Australia doesn't care too much - or not enough - to cut off trade ties, with China, which by most estimates, executes thousands of people every year.
Failed campaign
Since elected, Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott has talked warmly of Australia's friendships with China, Indonesia and Japan - all countries that execute criminals.
If Chan and Sukumaran are, as expected, executed in the next few days it will be a failure of Australian influence and power.
Despite huge efforts it has not been able to dictate to Indonesia what to do.
There will probably be diplomatic fall-out; Australia may recall its ambassador for a while.
There will likely be harsh words from Australian ministers in hastily convened press conferences.
But I suspect, pretty soon, relations will drift back to normal.
Australia needs Indonesia. Much of the Australian aid that heads to Jakarta goes towards anti-terrorism measures and efforts to tackle people smugglers. Australia will not want that to stop.
Right now there is a great deal of sympathy here for Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran.
But give it a few months and it is likely Australians, the government included, will be turning a blind eye when Indonesia continues to execute people who don't hail from the land Down Under.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-32492181

[DaZahroJaam.]

I am not reading all that.