INDONESIA: PAKISTANI DRUG TRAFFICKER EXECUTED

A Pakistani drug trafficker was executed by firing squad at a South Tangerang cemetery early in the morning in the fifth death sentence carried out by Indonesian authorities since the government announced a renewed push to execute those convicted of capital offenses.
Muhammad Abdul Hafeez, 44, was executed by members of the National Police Mobile Brigade (Brimob) at 12:17 a.m., Setia Untung Arimuladi, spokesman for legal affairs at the Attorney General’s Office, said. Hafeez was sentenced to death in a 2001 drug charge for attempting to smuggle more than one kilogram of heroin into Indonesia from Peshwar, Pakistan.
Several attempts by Hafeez to appeal the verdict were denied, Setia said.
“The convict made use of his right to demand clemency and a demand for a case review,” he said. “Both were not granted.”
A religious official and team of doctors were on-location for the execution, Setia said.
Indonesia carried out its first execution in four years in March, killing a Malawian national convicted of drug trafficking. In the months that followed four others were killed by firing squad.
The AGO plans to execute 12 people this year, a move that prompted criticism from human rights activists and ran counter to statements made by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono expressing a want to soften some of the nation’s harsh laws.
Death-row inmates are killed by firing squad in Indonesia. They are typically informed of their impending death 72 hours before the execution and shot under the cover of darkness in a remote location.