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Indonesia now 'preparing for executions' as Britons remain on death row

'We have had a warning since last month to prepare the place', a police official has said

Jess Staufenberg
Wednesday 04 May 2016 16:25 BST
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indonesian soldiers stand guard at the Nusa Kambanan island prison which is reportedly being prepared for firing squad executions.
indonesian soldiers stand guard at the Nusa Kambanan island prison which is reportedly being prepared for firing squad executions.

Indonesia is preparing to execute prisoners in a move which appears to signal the end of a suspension to capital punishment for a number of foreign nationals.

Two Britons, as well as a Philippine maid many believe is innocent, are on death row on charges of drug-smuggling related offences.

President Joko Widodo has said the policy of killing drug smugglers is necessary because of a problem with substance abuse in the country.

But while the prisoners' fate had been delayed after an international outcry over executions in 2015, a police official has now said preparations are being made at the Nusa Kambangan island prison.

"We have had a warning since last month to prepare the place," Aloysius Lilik Darmanto, a central Java police spokesperson, told The Guardian.

"We carried out some rehabilitation of the location, like painting and repairs, because there will probably be more people who will be executed."

Linsay Sandiford in prison

Mr Darmanto said he did not know which prisoners would be executed nor whether the two Britons, Lindsay Sandiford and Gareth Cashmore, were among them.

Ms Sandiford, who is from Teeside, was convicted in 2013 of trying to smuggle 4kg of cocaine into Bali at a worth of £1.6 million, a claim she admitted but which she said she was coerced into after threats to her son's life.

Gareth Cashmore, who is from Yorkshire, was sentenced to death after being found guilty of having 6.5kg of methamphetamine - or crystal meth - in his suitcase. He has a son.

A Phillipine maid, Mary Jane Veloso, was given a last-minute "reprieve" by President Widodo after a woman turned herself in for planting the drugs in Ms Veloso's luggage, yet she remains in prison.

There are a number of other prisoners on death row whose families have been trying to see them.

Indonesia's stance on capital punishment and drugs has strained its relations with countries around the world.

Ambassadors, heads of state and royals from Brazil, Malawi, the Netherlands, Nigeria and Indonesia were ignored by Mr Widodo after they personally contacted him to prevent executions of their citizens that went ahead in 2015.

The president has also been accused of executing foreign nationals as a measure to increase his popularity at home - and of trying to secure the release of Indonesian nationals held for drug offences overseas.

Meanwhile the Bali bomber, Umar Patek, who caused the death of 200 people in a nightclub in 2002, was acquitted of death by firing squad and sentenced to 20 years in an Indonesian jail.

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