Indonesia planning mass executions after Ramadan

Indonesia plans to put 16 convicts to death after next month’s Muslim Eid holiday, an official said Tuesday.

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.

However, a precise date was not given.

Ramadan ends with the Eid al-Fitr holiday, which falls in Indonesia on 6 and 7 July.

There have been no executions in Indonesia since April last year in order for the country to focus on fixing its slowing economy.

“We could not do it earlier because the government was trying to improve our economy, but now we will take some action after Eid,” Rum said.

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 several of drug convicts on death row in Indonesia. President Joko Widodo declared a war on drugs when he took office in 2014, because the country was seemingly facing an emergency due to rising narcotics use and traffickers should be severely punished.

Among the foreigners, there are Frenchman Serge Atlaoui and Filipina Mary Jane Veloso, as well as British grandmother Lindsay Sandiford who is on death row in Bali after she was caught smuggling a huge stash of cocaine into the resort island.