Bali drug smugglers are executed

INDONESIA (印尼) staunchly defended its execution of seven foreigners including two Australians (澳洲人) as a vital front of its ‘war’ on drugs as testimony emerged of how they went singing to their deaths.

Canberra (坎培拉) withdrew its ambassador in protest at the midnight executions, but Indonesian (印尼的) President Joko Widodo (維多多) said he was merely applying ‘the rule of law’ against narcotics traffickers.

The seven convicts – two from Australia (澳洲), one from Brazil (巴西) and four from Africa (非洲) – were shot by firing squad along with one Indonesian (印尼人), despite strident foreign appeals and pleas from family members.

Brazil expressed ‘deep regret’ at the execution of its national, who is mentally ill according to his family, and is weighing its next move.

The condemned men reportedly all refused blindfolds and sang hymns, among themAmazing Grace, as they went to face the firing squad in a jungle clearing, according to a pastor who was with them. A Filipina (菲律賓女人) originally set to be executed was given an 11th hour reprieve after a woman who allegedly duped her into ferrying drugs to Indonesia came forward to police in the Philippines.

Indonesian Attorney General (司法部長) Muhammad Prasetyo (普拉塞特約) said: “We are fighting a war against horrible drug crimes that threaten our nation’s survival. We are not making enemies of countries from where those executed came.” Australia’s (澳洲) Prime Minister Tony Abbott (艾伯特) called the executions “cruel and unnecessary”.

(AFP, 29 April 2015)