Death row: What we know about those scheduled for Indonesia’s next executions

JAKARTA, Indonesia – After an over one year hiatus, Indonesia is ready to carry out a new round of executions.

This week, a total of 14 individuals on death row are set to face the firing squad, a list that includes 10 foreigners and 4 Indonesians.

Authorities have been making preparations, with death row drug convicts transferred to Nusakambangan prison island, where Indonesia puts convicts to death, and 14 prisoners reportedly placed in isolation, an usual step before executions. 

On Tuesday, July 26 authorities gave notice of their executions, which usually signals the start of a 72-hour notice period.

This is the third round of executions under President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.

Rights groups have also called on Indonesia to halt the planned executions, citing worries about irregularities with some convictions. 

Indonesia – which has some of the toughest anti-drugs laws in the world – executed 14 drug convicts, mostly foreigners, in two batches last year.

Here’s what we know of the 14 currently on death row:

1. Humphrey Jefferson, Nigeria

The restaurant owner was arrested in 2003 after police found 1.7kg of heroin in a room used by one of his employees. He was sentenced to death in 2004 and has reportedly declined to ask Jokowi for clemency, as it would entail seeking forgiveness for a crime of which he says he is innocent.

2. Michael Titus, Nigeria

PLEASE RT
3 people on execution list #Indonesia
Michael Titus Igweh
Zulfiqar Ali
Merry Utami#Pray for them pic.twitter.com/NemI5HEKUb

— Julie (@SalamiWatt) July 25, 2016

Titus was working as a clothes importer, when he was sentenced to death in 2003 for possessing 5.8 kgs of heroin. He claims that his genitals were electrocuted during questioning by the police, forcing him to confess. The Supreme Court rejected an application for case review. The two alleged accomplices who’d given Michael’s name died in police custody and were unable to testify. 

3. Ozias Sibanda, Nigeria

Sibanda was arrested in 2001 along with 3 other friends in Soekarno-Hatta airport in Jakarta for smuggling thousands of grams of heroin in the form of capsules. He entered the country with a false Zimbabwe passport but the country has since confirmed that he is Nigerian. 

4. Eugene Ape, Nigeria 

5. Obina Nwajagu, Nigeria

6. Okonkwo Nonso Kingsley, Nigeria

7. Fredi Budiman, Indonesia 

Budiman is known as a drug kinpin in Indonesia. In 2009, he was arrested for possession of 500 grams of methamphetamine and sentenced to 3 years and 4 months. In 2011, he was arrested for possession of hundreds of grams of methamphetamine and tool manufacture and sentenced to 18 years in prison. 
In 2012, from behind bars, he was caught controlling the delivery of 1.4 million ecstasy pills from China and was given a death sentence. He was caught in separate instances from 2013-2016 controlling more drug shipments from prison.

8. Merri Utami, Indonesia

Grandmother #MerriUtami was tricked into carrying 1kg heroin. The Govt of Indonesia will execute her for her mistake pic.twitter.com/8v015TxDQ6

— Naomi Burke-Shyne (@NaomiSBS) July 26, 2016

Utami was sentenced to death for carrying 1.1 kilograms of heroin through Soekarno-Hatta airport in 2003. She was sent to the prison island of Nusa Kamabangan but she is yet to claim for clemency. She has been on death row since 2004. Under Indonesian law, all legal avenues must be exhausted before an inmate can be executed. Rights group the National Commission on Violence Against Women say the former domestic worker was tricked into trafficking heroin.

9-10. Agus Hadi and Pujo Lestari, Indonesia

The two were arrested together for attempting to smuggle more than 12,000 benzodiazepine pills into the Riau Islands from Malaysia in 2006, according to Amnesty International. The two men were sentenced to death the following year and can make no further legal appeals against their execution.

11. Gurdip Singh, India

Singh was arrested in August 2004 at the main Jakarta airport for acting as a courier in smuggling 300 grams of heroin. He was given the death sentence in 2005 by a district court in Tanggeran, Banten province.

12. Zulfiqar Ali, Pakistan

Sick Pakistani death row prisoner Zulfiqar Ali taken from hospital to Nusakambangan in evidence executions close pic.twitter.com/ZzEKRAlRve

— Jewel Topsfield (@JewelTopsfield) July 25, 2016

Ali is married to an Indonesian woman and lived in Bogor, West Java where he was arrested in November 2004 by the police, based on Gurdip Singh’s statement that he had gotten the drugs from him. Later, Singh retracted his statement saying police coerced him but the court ignored the statement and sentenced Ali to death in June 2005.

He was transferred from a hospital this week to a secluded island prison prior to the executions, after being hospitalized for two months for kidney damage, reportedly from complications caused by the torture he received under the hands of the police. Ali was also said to have been denied a lawyer during his trial. He is the father of 6.

13. Seck Osmane, Senegal

He was sentenced to death in Jakarta in 2004 for carrying 2.4kg of heroin in 25 packages. The prosecutor said: “He came to Indonesia and acted in a manner that would destroy the future of the nation, by smuggling a large quantity of heroin for sale and should be sentenced to death.” The Supreme Court rejected his appeal in 2005, and final judicial challenges failed in 2009 and 2011. 

14. Frederick Luttar, Nigeria

Luttar is a Nigerian who entered the country with a fake Zimbabwe passport. He was arrested in 2006 for drug trafficking. – Rappler.com/with reports from Karma Gurung