The death penalty is applicable for murder, offences concerning illegal weapons, drug crimes, corruption and terrorism.

The death penalty is applicable for murder, offences concerning illegal weapons, drug crimes, corruption and terrorism. Corruption is punishable by death only if the country is in an emergency situation.
Court requests for clemency are automatic under Indonesian law if those convicted are sentenced to death and do not submit a request themselves.
Law No. 12/1951 on firearms stipulates that a person or party lacking a permit who imports, exports, produces, accepts, obtains, furnishes, attempts to provide, possesses or carries a firearm, ammunition or explosive could face the death penalty or a maximum jail term of 20 years.
The 1997 Narcotics Law carries the death penalty for convicted drug dealers but the maximum sentence is rarely imposed. Indonesia with a population of more than 200 million, has an estimated 1.5 million drug addicts, and they spend an average of Rp 100,000 per day on drugs.
Law No.20/2001 on corruption makes perpetrators of this crime liable to capital punishment if they are found guilty of corruption during an economic crisis. This law is not retroactive.
On March 6, 2003, Indonesia's House of Representatives converted into law two emergency anti-terrorism presidential decrees issued in October 2002, a week after bombing attacks on the resort island Bali that killed 202 people.
The new legislation prescribes death by firing squad for a variety of terrorist offences. People found guilty of committing acts of terror, or threatening to do so, or damaging public or international property can be condemned to death or jail terms ranging from fours years to life. The same penalties are applicable to those using or threatening to use chemical, biological or radioactive materials to cause terror. People who stockpile or use firearms or explosives could face penalties ranging from three years in jail to death. The law allows police to detain suspects for three days on recommendations of intelligence reports. A judge can then review the case and order the suspect to be held for up to six months for further interrogation without issuing formal charges.
Human rights activists expressed concern over the antiterrorism legislation, saying it could open the door to widespread abuse and remain in use long after the war on terror ends, given Indonesia's weak judiciary, rampant corruption and poor human rights record.
Public executions are banned in Indonesia. They usually come early morning on a deserted beach or remote jungle at the hands of a paramilitary firing squad of around 10 to 13 police selected following a practice session shooting at human-shaped targets. People condemned to death are only informed of their imminent execution 72 hours earlier. Their head is covered by a hood and they wear a white shirt with a red cross on, it marking the heart. The guns used by the firing squad include some loaded with blank bullets, so that none of the squad knows who fired the fatal bullet. Death does not often come quickly. There is usually around a three to five minute (period) until death. After the shooting a doctor checks for any signs of life, should there be any the commander of the firing squad shots the condemned person in the head. But the person is only rarely shot through the temple to hasten death because the body must be collected by relatives for burial.
On August 5, 2004 Indonesia ended a de facto moratorium on the death penalty with the first execution in three years. Indian national Ayodhya Prasad Chaubey, sentenced to death for smuggling over 12 kilograms of heroin into the country, faced a firing squad in Medan, the capital of North Sumatra province. Chaubey was the second person executed in Indonesia for drug offences, and is believed to be only the 10th person executed there since 1945. Before Chaubey’s, the most recent executions in Indonesia had been carried out in May 2001. Then two people convicted of multiple murder 12 years earlier were shot dead in a forest east of Kupang, the capital of West Timor. Theirs had been the first execution in six years.
There were 65 people on death row in Indonesia in August 2004, according to police data published after Chaubey’s execution. Of these, 29 were convicted of drug-related crimes. Another 36 people were on death row for various other offences, including murder and terrorism.