The government has strongly hinted that it would soon move forward with the third round of executions for drug convicts under President Joko Widodo’s administration, over a year after the last round of executions which saw 8 people killed by firing squad in April 2015.
Government officials have been purposefully ambiguous regarding the date of the next executions, hoping to avoid the “soap opera” drama (ie. pleas for mercy and criticism from the international community) that took place during the countdown to the previous round of shootings.
Although there have been government statements implying executions could take place as soon as sometime within the next few days, the latest statements by Attorney General Muhammad Prasetyo seem to indicate that the government wants to wait until after the Holy Month of Ramadan to go through with the state-sponsored killings.
“Yes it’s possible, executions during the time of fasting would not be good. Plus there are still those undergoing judicial review,” Prasetyo said yesterday as quoted by Repubika.
Prasetyo may have been referring to drug kingpin Freddy Budiman, who is set to appear in court next week as part of his death penalty appeals process. Freddy was sentenced to death in 2013 for importing millions of ecstasy pills and embarrased Indonesian law enforcement multiple times after being caught continuing to run his drug empire from behind bars. Prasetyo has indicated in the past that he wanted Freddy to be included in the next round of executions if his legal appeals had all been finalized.
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