Indonesian President Joko Widodo has defended his decision to reject clemency for drug smugglers on death row, but says he is open to abolishing the death penalty if the Indonesian people wanted change. In an exclusive one-one-one interview with Al Jazeera correspondent Step Vaessen, set to air at 04:30GMT on Saturday, Widodo said “as a human being I feel it too” when asked about the executions which are set to take place soon.
But he said he also felt the “suffering of those parents whose children are addicted to drugs”.
The planned executions of Australians Myuran Sukumaran, 33, and Andrew Chan, 31, have sparked diplomatic tension between the two neighbours after Australia’s repeated pleas for mercy on their behalf. The two men, who were convicted of drug smuggling in 2005, are part of a group of up to 11 convicts, mostly foreigners, due to be executed on the prison island of Nusakambangan. A date for the executions has not been announced.
Widodo explained his decision for rejecting the drug smugglers’ appeals for clemency, saying that he was not swayed by the nationality of the convicts, nor the lobbying of their country’s government.
“I believe the Indonesian legal system is thorough in these cases and looks at the evidence,” he told our correspondent.
“When I rejected clemency I took into consideration how many drugs they smuggled, how many pills they distributed…. The court has sentenced them and we cannot discriminate between countries.” .. see more
source: america aljazeera
Tags: Indonesian president, Politics
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