Malawian executed in Indonesia for drug smuggling

A Malawian national was reportedly executed by authorities in Indonesia, their first execution in more than four years.

A BBC report on Friday said officials confirmed that Adami Wilson, a Malawi national convicted of drugs smuggling, was executed by firing squad on Thursday night.

Wilson was reportedly sentenced to death in 2004 after he was found guilty of smuggling one kilogramme of heroin into the country.

Malawi Government officials were not readily available for comment on the execution and confirmation of the name.

In the recent past, some foreigners disguised as Malawians obtained passports fraudulently and this led to deportations while others served sentences for various offences in foreign countries.

Wilson’s execution in the Pulau Seribu island chain is the first in Indonesia since 2008, said the BBC.

The attorney general’s office told the AP news agency that nine other convicts were due to be executed this year.

The human-rights group Amnesty International called the execution a “shocking and regressive step”.

Amnesty says that more than 140 people are on death row in Indonesia, mostly for drug crimes. About a third of them are foreigners.

“We oppose the death penalty in all circumstances, but Indonesia’s long period without executions and the pledge to put even more people to death, makes this even more shocking,” Amnesty’s Papang Hidayat is quoted by the BBC.