Indonesia: Five foreign nationals executed for drug offences

Six people have been executed by firing squad in Indonesia, after they were convicted on drug charges.

Among them were five foreign nationals from Brazil, the Netherlands, Vietnam, Malawi and Nigeria. The sixth, an Indonesian women identified as Rani Andriani, was also killed.

Five of the convicts were killed on Nusakambangan Island, off the south coast of the Indonesian island of Java. The sixth was killed in Java's Boyolali district.

All six had been sentenced on drug charges between 2000 to 2011. They were executed shortly before midnight on 17 January despite international appeals for clemency.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff had issued a last-minute plea to Indonesian authorities asking that former pilot Marco Moreira be spared. It was rejected by Indonesian President Joko Widodo who said the judicial proceedings had followed Indonesian law.

The Dutch government had issued a similar appeal for Ang Kiem Soei. Clemency appeals for Namaona Denis of Malawi, Daniel Enemuo of Nigeria, and female convict Tran Thi Bich Hanh of Vietnam were rejected in December.

Attorney General Muhammad Prasetyo commented: "What we do is merely aimed at protecting our nation from the danger of drugs. There is no excuse for drug dealers, and hopefully this will have a deterrent effect."

These are the first executions carried out since President Widodo took office in October.

At least 138 people are on death row in Indonesia, mostly for drug offences. A third of them are foreign nationals. Foreigners are regularly charged with drugs offences in Indonesia, which has some of the world's toughest anti-narcotics laws, but most are caught in Bali where many are languishing in jail.

In 2013, British national, Lindsay Sandiford, was sentenced to death for smuggling cocaine into Bali.