Five Coffins Transported To Nusakambangan For Convicts On Death Row

Cilacap, C Java, Jan 17 (Antara) - Five coffins were transported to Nusakambangan Island, Cilacap, Central Java, ahead of the execution of five convicts sentenced to death in a drugs-related case. An Antara correspondent in Cilacap reported on Saturday that the coffins were brought to Wijaya Port by five ambulances at around 2.30 p. m. local time and were then transported to Sodong Port on Nusakambangan Island. The coffins carried by Pengayoman IV ship, which is owned by the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, are meant for the bodies of the five convicts following their execution on Sunday (January 18) midnight. The five drug convicts who will be executed are Dutch national Ang Kim Soei (62), Malawi citizen Namaona Denis (48), Brazilian Marco Archer Cardoso Mareira (53), Nigerian Daniel Enemua (38), and Indonesian national Rani Andriani alias Melisa Aprilia (38). Viatnamese Tran Thi Bicj Hanh (37), convicted in the same case, will also be executed the same day in Boyolali, Central Java, as ordered by the Supreme Court. The execution by a group of snipers will most likely be carried out in Nirnaya area on Nusakambangan Island, which was the site of a Dutch prison during the colonial times. Some convicts in a terrorism-related case---Amrozi, Imam Samudra and Muchlas---had been executed at the same location on November 9, 2008. Earlier, a non-governmental organization criticized the government's decision to execute the six narcotic convicts on death rows on Sunday. The Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) emphasized in a written statement on Saturday that death penalty was not the solution to stop the distribution of drugs. "Kontras is not in favor of this method as a way to curtail the chain of distribution of drugs," Coordinator of Kontras Haris Azhar pointed out in the statement. He strongly criticized the attorney general's remarks on the planned execution of the six narcotic convicts, wherein he stated that it was aimed at saving the country from the danger of narcotics. "The statement does not reflect the institution's agenda in the midst of the current global trend of doing away with the death penalty, which is also in line with the agenda on national human rights," Azhar explained.