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Meet The 9 Prison Inmates To Be Executed At Midnight Today In Indonesia

NCC - Tuesday, April 28, 2015


Rodrigo Gularte, 49, Brazil:

Gularte was convicted of smuggling six kilograms of cocaine stashed in his surfing gear in 2004.

He was detained along with two other men, but took the blame for the covert drug operation, and was sentenced to death one year later.

The Gularte family have tried without success to obtain clemency for him by saying doctors have classed him as paranoid schizophrenic, which would normally see him transferred to a psychiatric facility.

His lawyer said he would continue his fight to stop the execution and was due to launch a last-ditch bid for mercy.

If the execution goes ahead as planned, Gularte will be the second Brazilian to be executed under Indonesia's tough crackdown on drug smuggling.

Relatives and friends said Gularte had spent most of his time alone at Nusakambangan prison, on the execution island, talking to the walls, imagining ghosts or hearing voices.

Gularte was born into a wealthy family in the southern Brazilian city of Foz do Iguaco.

He was a keen surfer and relatives remember him as a kind young boy who slipped into depression, and became involved in drugs after his parents divorced when he was 13.



Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso, 30, Phillipines

A Filipino migrant worker who was sentenced to death in October 2010 for smuggling 2.6 kilograms of heroin into Jogjakarata from Malaysia.

She is the only female and has spent the shortest amount of time on death row.

Born to a poor family in the Philippines, Veloso is a single mother of two boys who insists she went to Indonesia for a job as a maid and was duped by an international drug syndicate.

Veloso says she was first offered a job by a friend in Malaysia, but upon her arrival she was told the work was actually in Indonesia so immediately flew there.

She claims the heroin was secretly hidden in her suitcase in Malaysia




Silvester Obiekwe Nwolise, 47, Nigeria:


Sentenced to death for smuggling 1.2 kilograms of heroin into Indonesia from Pakistan in 2004.

Obiekwe was reportedly running a drug ring while on death row, outraging authorities who ordered he face the firing squad as soon as possible.

His wife Fatimah claimed Obiekwe was unemployed in Nigeria's largest city, Lagos, before being lured to Pakistan on the promise of a quick-paying job but was duped.

According to his wife, once in Pakistan Obiekwe was asked to swallow capsules he was told contained goat horn powder, and fly to Indonesia.

Ms Fatimah, who is Indonesian, described Obiekwe as just a 'poor courier'.

The pair met in prison in 2007 when she accompanied a friend who was visiting another inmate, according to reports.

They married that year and have since had two children, now five and three.





Okwudili Oyatanze, 41, Nigeria:

Oyatanze was arrested in 2001 for trying to smuggle 1.15 kilograms of heroin, in his stomach, through Jakarta's international airport from Pakistan.

He was convicted the following year and sentenced to death.

Known in Indonesia's penal system as the 'Death Row Gospel Singer', Oyatanze was the front man for a band comprising prison inmates.

He has written songs and released multiple albums from inside jail.

Oyatanze, born in southeastern Nigeria, reportedly launched a garment business in 1999 and travelled to Indonesia to buy clothing to market in Nigeria.

When the business collapsed, he found himself steeped in debt.

Seizing a chance to earn some easy money, Oyatanze travelled to Pakistan to become a courier.

The drug smuggling plan reportedly involved swallowing capsules of heroin before boarding a flight to Jakarta.





Zainal Abidin, Indonesia:

Zainal Abidin, from Palembang in south Sumatra, was caught in 2001 possessing 58.7 kilograms of marijuana.

His original life sentence was upgraded that same year to death for his role in the massive operation on the well-travelled Aceh-to-Java drugs smuggling route.

Indonesian authorities at the time of his arrest were cracking down on the marijuana trade, believing the proceeds from sales were being used to fund the Free Aceh Movement of north Sumatra.

He was sentenced to death in December 2001.



Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, Australia:

In a Bali hotel room almost a decade ago, two young Australian men strapped packages of heroin to the bodies of four nervous drug couriers – one package around each thigh and another to the back of their waists.

Andrew Chan, then 21, and Myuran Sukumaran, 24, both from Sydney, weren’t taking the risk of personally smuggling more than 8kg of heroin to Australia. They were the organisers of a Bali “holiday” for seven other young Australians. They gave the orders, booked flights and accommodation, picked up the heroin, even bought loose, gaudy tourist shirts to cover up the drugs.

The Bali Nine, as they are now known, had been followed by Indonesian police since the day they arrived in the tourist mecca – tipped off by Australian federal police. Chan was arrested at the airport with the four couriers on 17 April 2005 – Renae Lawrence, Martin Stephens, Scott Rush and Michael Czugaj – just before boarding a flight to Sydney. Sukumaran was arrested the same night in a Bali hotel room with three other would-be mules.

The couriers admitted their crimes and are serving life or 20-year prison sentences. But Chan and Sukumaran denied they had anything to do with the scheme and blamed the drug mules for scapegoating them. The extensive surveillance, phone records and the evidence of the couriers made their denials unbelieveable. In 2006 they were sentenced to death by firing squad.




Raheem Agbaje Salami, 50, Nigeria:


Salami was caught smuggling 5.3 kilograms of heroin into Indonesia in 1998.

Salami, who initially was wrongly said to have come from Spain, spent five years believing that he would one day be released.

He had been sentenced, in 1999, to a life term by the Surabaya District Court in East Java for bringing the stash of heroin through Surabaya airport.

In 2006, however, the Supreme Court upgraded his sentence to death.




Martin Anderson, 50, Nigeria:

Anderson, also known as Belo, was sentenced to death in 2004 after being convicted of possessing 50 grams of heroin in Jakarta in November, 2003.

He had travelled to Indonesia on a fake Ghanaian passport.




It would have been 10, but this one got a 2 weeks extension:

Serge Atlaoui, France:

Frenchman Serge Atlaoui, who was due to face the firing squad, was given a last-minute, two-week reprieve.



https://au.news.yahoo.com/a/27378424/indonesias-mass-execution-the-story-behind-the-other-seven-inmates/

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