By Ainur Rohmah
JAKARTA
As Indonesia prepares to execute its first prisoners since President Joko Widodo came to power, fellow inmates prayed Friday for a quick and clean death for one of the women due to be killed by firing squad.
Vietnamese national Tran Thi Bich Hanh, 37, is among six death row prisoners due to be executed on Sunday for drug-related offenses.
The head of Bulu women’s prison told The Anadolu Agency that inmates had gathered to pray for a swift and relatively painless death for their friend.
"This morning, all the prisoners here prayed together for her so everything goes well," Suprobowati, who like many Indonesians only uses one name, said.
Tran – found with 1.1 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine when she was arrested at Adi Sumarmo airport, Surakarta, four years ago – is currently awaiting transfer to Boyolali prison in Central Java, where she is due to be executed.
The drugs, known as Shabu in Indonesia, were worth 2.2 billion rupiah ($175,000), according to the prosecution at her trial. She was sentenced to death despite the prosecution requesting a life prison term.
Prison teacher Shinta Ardhan described Tran as an intelligent student. "She had confessed her fault to all of [the other] inmates, as well as me," he said.
He said Tran, known as Asien in prison, had accepted responsibility for her crime and did not blame anyone else.
Tran is the only one of the six who will be executed in Boyolali. The other five, including Indonesian woman Rani Andriani, are to be shot on the prison island of Nusa Kambangan, off southern Java.
The four men facing execution are from Brazil, Malawi, Nigeria and the Netherlands.
Their clemency requests were rejected by Widodo in last month. Although he is seen as a liberal reformer in the West, Widodo has been unyielding in his attitude to Indonesia’s death penalty, which was resumed in 2013 after an unofficial four-year moratorium.
In a speech to students in December, he announced he would reject the petitions of 64 death row drugs cases.
Attorney General Muhammad Prasetyo said six firing squads had been prepared for the executions. He said the prisoners would be executed simultaneously for “psychological reasons,” according to the Kompas.com news website.
The foreigners’ bodies will be repatriated to their home countries, Prasetyo said.
Senior Commander Rikwanto, spokesman for Jakarta police, said the executions would take place in a confined space. A 12-strong firing squad, of which only three will fire live bullets, would be joined by a religious representative and a medical official.
The firing squad will shoot from a distance of 5 to 10 meters.
The confirmation of the executions on Wednesday led to a spate of calls for the sentences to be called off.
The European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini said: "The EU calls on the Indonesian government not to proceed with the execution of death row inmates.”
Amnesty International Research Director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific Rupert Abbott said: “These executions must be stopped immediately. The death penalty is a human rights violation and it is shocking that the Indonesian authorities are looking to put to death six people this Sunday.”
Indonesia has said 20 executions are scheduled for this year.
