The Indian government took diplomatic steps in a last...

The Indian government took diplomatic steps in a last ditch effort to save Indian national Ayodhya Prasad Chaubey from a death sentence for importing heroin into Indonesia.
India's Consul General K.J. Prancis said after a meeting with Ayodhya's lawyer, Irham Buana Nasution, that the Indian Embassy in Jakarta was intensifying its lobby through the Foreign Affairs Ministry to persuade President Megawati Soekarnoputri to review her decision to reject clemency for Ayodhya.
He added that both his government and Ayodhya had yet to receive the copy of the president's rejection of the clemency request. The execution cannot be conducted before the copy of decree is received by the lawyers.
Irham said he had submitted a request to the Supreme Court to review the court verdict against his client because the court had handed down a death sentence, despite the absence of any physical evidence.
"Up to now, the court has failed to present any physical evidence that my client possessed heroin," he said recently.
Ayodhya, 59, along with his two Thai partners, named as Saelow Praseart, 52 and Namsong Sirilak, 25, and two [unnamed] Indonesian partners were sentenced to death by the Medan District Court in 1994 after they were found guilty of trying to smuggle 12.19 kilograms of heroin to Indonesia from Thailand.
The verdict was upheld by the High Court in 1994 and by the Supreme Court in 1995.
Ayodhya had also appealed for a review of his death sentence but the Supreme Court turned down his appeal in 1997. It was not clear why his death sentence has not been carried out.
He also submitted a letter to the president to beg for clemency but the president turned down it on February 3, 2003.
Ayodhya himself was counting his days at the Tanjunggusta penitentiary in Medan after hearing of the president's rejection of his clemency request.
"I am ready to be put to death should the government reject my appeal," he told the Post, while sitting in his cell.