Indonesia has asked Nigeria and three other countries to send representatives to a maximum security prison ahead of the expected execution of 10 drug convicts, although an official 72-hour notice of execution has not been given yet.
To face the firing squad for drug trafficking are Sylvester Obiekwe Nwolise,Raheem Agbaje Salami and Okwudili Oyatanze all from Nigeria and seven nationals of Australia, Brazil,Ghana, France and the Philippines.
The case has strained relations between the governments of those nations and Indonesia.
The Attorney General’s Office said it expected to announce the date of execution in the next few weeks.
Embassy officials of the four countries received text messages from the government to send representatives today to the prison island of Nusakambangan, where the executions will soon take place. It was not clear why they were being summoned so early.
“The Attorney General’s Office issued a blanket statement to embassies involved to send representatives. They did not say for what purpose,” said an embassy official, who asked not to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the media.
“Our worst fear right now is that it’s in preparation for possible executions.”
Security at the prison was heightened yesterday and religious counsellors, doctors and the firing squad were alerted to start final preparations.
The Attorney General has been waiting for all the legal processes of the 10 death row inmates to be completed before announcing an execution date.
Lawyers were scrambling to various Indonesian courts in a last-ditch attempt to delay the execution. But the only outstanding appeal considered still valid by the attorney general was for an Indonesian national, said spokesman Tony Spontana.
France has warned Indonesia the executions could damage ties, while Australia has pleaded repeatedly for clemency for Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, two Australians arrested as ringleaders of the so-called Bali Nine drug-smuggling group.
“I fear that Indonesia will seek to proceed with the execution of the two Australian citizens,” Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop told reporters after a visit to NATO headquarters in Brussels yesterday .
Sylvester Obiekwe Nwolise,born on 7 July 1965, was sentenced to death in September 2004 by a court in Tangerang.
The court found him guilty of trafficking 2.6lb of heroin via Sukarno Hatta Airport in Jakarta in 2002.
In January 2015 the Indonesian National Narcotics Body said that Sylvester was running a drugs ring in Nusakambangan jail, where he is being held.
Raheem Agbaje Salami is believed to be Jamiu Owolabi Abashin, but entered Indonesia using a Spanish passport with the name Raheem Agbaje Salami.
Salami was caught with 11lb of heroin inside his suitcase in Surabaya airport on 2 September 1998.
A court in Surabaya gave him a life sentence in April 1999, which was reduced by the High Court to 20 years.
Salami appealed and the Supreme Court gave him a death sentence. His clemency application was rejected on 5 January 2015.
He tried to challenge the rejection of his clemency but the challenge failed and he is in the process of an appeal.
Okwudili Oyatanze, 45,was given the death sentence by the Tangerang court for trafficking 2.4lb of heroin through Sukarno Hatta airport in 2001.
His clemency was rejected in February 2015.
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