Indonesia: Drug Offenders Executed, More To Come

Indonesia shot two Nigerian men for drug offences late on Thursday night, and drug officials hope more executions will soon be carried out.

Samuel Iwachekawu Okoye and Hansen Anthony Nwaoysa were executed before midnight on Thursday (26 June) on Nusakambangan prison island, off the coast of central Java.

Indonesia’s Growing Drug Problem

Two years ago, Indonesian authorities tied a 32-year-old Thai woman named Namsong Sirilak and a 62-year-old Indian named Saelow Prasert to palm trees at dawn in northern Sumatra and shot them for trafficking in heroin -- only weeks after the execution of their Indian accomplice, Ayodhya Prasad Chaubey.


That might have been a spectacular answer to Indonesia’s growing problem with illegal drugs, but so far it doesn’t seem to be doing much good. Despite Jakarta’s declaration of war on drugs, traffickers continue to tap into the increasingly lucrative Indonesian market, already awash with cheap speed, ecstasy and heroin as the archipelago nation begins to catch up with the drug use problems that Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines especially have been fighting for decades.

Indonesia's Life Or Death Battle Against Drugs

Tim Lindsey and Simon Butt.


Australians caught in Indonesia's drug purge face harsh penalties

Indonesia is in the middle of a major anti-drug crack-down that began last year when trafficking cases leapt to 7410 compared with 1833 in 1999. Indonesian police havearrested more than 700 people in recent raids across the country. In Jakarta alone there were about 150 arrests in April, some resulting in shoot-outs. Several foreigners were executed last year for drug offences.

Indonesia Seeks Death Sentence For Drugs Suspect

Indonesian police today vowed to make an example of an Australian woman who could face a firing squad for allegedly smuggling drugs into Bali.

Prosecutors have promised to seek the toughest possible sentence for Schapelle Leigh Corby, who could be put to death over a 4.1kg cannabis haul found in her luggage when she arrived on the resort island on October 8.