INDONESIA: SUPREME COURT SENTENCES 5 TO DEATH FOR DRUG OFFENSES

The Supreme Court has added five new death row inmates to the Attorney General’s Office’s (AGO) executions list, with the recent sentencing of five drug dealers.
The Supreme Court said the five people, including Hong Kong citizen and international drug syndicate kingpin Wong Chi Ping, deserved the punishment because drug-related mortality had gotten worse in recent years with the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) recording around 50 deaths every day due to drugs.
“If some people say that the death penalty is a cruel punishment, then is it not cruel for us to let 50 people die every day because of the drugs that these syndicates brought into our country?” said Supreme Court justice Suhadi, one of three judges handling the case.
The other four convicts also sentenced to death are Indonesian Ahmad Salim Wijaya and Hong Kong nationals Cheung Hon Ming, Siu Cheuk Fung and Tam Siu Liung.
In its ruling the Supreme Court upheld the death sentences handed down on Wong, Ahmad, Cheung and Siu by the West Jakarta District Court in November 2015.
The primary court initially sentenced Tam to life in prison, but judges at the Supreme Court disagreed with the earlier sentence and upgraded the penalty to death.