Government tries to save Indian from being executed in Indonesia

Today Indonesia is preparing its firing squad again to execute 14 prisoners on death row. One of those who is to face firing squad is an Indian, Gurdip Singh. He was found guilty of trying to smuggle 300-gram heroin into Indonesia in 2004.

We have a revision on the execution list. This is the right one. There are 10 foreign nationals and 4 Indonesians. pic.twitter.com/Ff11o7yJ2j

— LBH Masyarakat (@LBHMasyarakat) July 26, 2016

All the 14 prisoners have been moved to isolation holding cells on Nusa Kambangan. It is the same where last year two rounds of executions were held.

For Gurdip Singh initially 20-year sentence was recommended. Singh had withdrawn an initial statement he had made against Zulfiqar Ali a Pakistani national. Singh had initially said that he was coerced into making a false admission against Ali in return for a lenient sentence. Ali too is to be executed today.

Lawyers in Indonesia are trying to lodge a last minute clemency appeal with President Joko Widodo. UN human rights officials have also expressed concerns over the executions planned by Indonesia and the officials have appealed Indonesia to put an end to capital punishment.

Indonesia is one among few countries in the world that have toughest drug laws. The country had last year executed 14 drug convicts last year of which most were
foreigners.