SOCIETY
Vietnamese woman executed by shooting on drug charges in Indonesia
TUOI TRE NEWS
UPDATED : 01/19/2015 16:01 GMT + 7
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A Vietnamese woman was executed by firing squad in Indonesia on drug charges on Sunday despite efforts by Vietnam to seek commutation for her.
The Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday that high-ranking Vietnamese leaders had asked Indonesia to consider clemency for Tran Thi Bich Hanh, 37, whose execution was carried out by shooting.
Hanh and five others were executed by firing squad the same day for drug trafficking after their petitions for a pardon were rejected in December 2014.
“Vietnam has been consistent in strictly punishing acts of transporting and trading in drugs and has always cooperated with other countries in preventing and combating drug-related crimes,” Le Hai Binh, the Vietnamese ministry’s spokesman, said.
Since Hanh was arrested in June 2011, high-ranking Vietnamese leaders, competent agencies, and the Vietnamese Embassy in Indonesia has worked with Indonesian authorities many times, asking them to ensure her legitimate rights and interests in accordance with applicable laws and to consider commuting her sentence on humanitarian grounds, the diplomat said.
Hanh was caught carrying methamphetamine in her body and she was sentenced to death in November 2011, according to the
Vietnam News Agency.
She asked Indonesian authorities to let her face the firing squad uncuffed and to cremate her body and keep her ashes at the prison where she had been jailed, according to Jakarta Post.
The five other drug convicts included an Indonesian woman and four men from Brazil, Malawi, Nigeria, and the Netherlands,
The Guardianreported.
Indonesian police stand guard as ambulances transport the bodies of executed drug convicts from Nusakambangan prison in Cilacap on January 18, 2014, as Indonesia carried out its first executions under new President Joko Widodo by firing squad on one local woman and foreigners hailing from Brazil, the Netherlands, Vietnam, Malawi and Nigeria. Photo credit: AFP
A Vietnamese woman was among six drug convicts executed by a firing squad in Indonesia on Sunday morning.
Tran Thi Bich Hanh, 37, was shot in Boyolali, Central Java, while the other five on Nusakambangan Island, the Jakarta Post reported.
Tony Spontana, Attorney General’s Office spokesman, told the newspaper that one of Hanh’s death wishes was not to be handcuffed during the execution.
The Jakarta Globe reported earlier that she wished to be killed in her home country.
Hanh was sentenced to death in November 22, 2011 for smuggling drugs into Indonesia in nine different cases.
She was arrested at Adi Soemarmo in Boyolali while carrying 1.1 kilograms of methamphetamine in her body.
The other convicts were four men from Brazil, Malawi, Nigeria and the Netherlands, and an Indonesian woman who were convicted between 2000 and 2004.
Their bodies would be buried or cremated depending on the requests of their families or their embassies in Jakarta.
It’s not clear what is happening to Hanh’s. She had wished to be cremated, Spontana told the Jakarta Post.
The executions were the first for nearly 70 death-row drug convicts in Indonesia and the first under President Joko Widodo, who sworn in last October.
On December 30, he rejected all their appeals, including one from the Dutch government for their 52-year-old citizen Ang Kiem Soe and another from Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff for 53-year-old Marco Archer Cardoso Moreira.
Drug crimes in Indonesia are accused of killing 40 to 50 people in the country every year.
Widodo government has pledged to give no pardons to the drug convicts, and that they will execute at least 20 of them every year, despite criticism from international governments and human rights groups.
The executions sparked "diplomatic storm" from Brazil and the Netherlands, AFP reported.
The newswire quoted a spokesman for Brazilian President Dilma Roussef as saying that she was "distressed and outraged" after Indonesia defied her repeated pleas and put to death Marco Archer Cardoso Moreira, who was convicted of smuggling cocaine into Indonesia in 2004.
"Using the death penalty, which is increasingly rejected by the international community, seriously affects relations between our countries," AFP quoted the spokesman as saying in a statement.
Meanwhile Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders said the Netherlands had temporarily recalled its ambassador to Indonesia over the execution of Dutchman Ang Kiem Soei, and described all six deaths as "terribly sad" in a statement, according to the newswire.
Dutch King Willem-Alexander and Prime Minister Mark Rutte had been in contact with the Indonesian president on the matter, he said, and the government had done "all in its power" to attempt to halt the execution.
Le Hai Binh, spokesman for the Vietnamese foreign ministry, said Sunday that Hanoi had asked Indonesia "to ensure Vietnamese citizens' legal rights and consider reducing their sentences in a humanitarian way" since Hanh's arrest in 2011.
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Bunch of paper tigers
.You are making Indonesia look much more cheaper in international forum 
