Nigeria Man Facing Execution in Indonesia Says He's Innocent, Refuses to Sign Paper
Humphrey Ejike Jefferson Eleweke
According to the Community Legal Aid Institute, Nigerian death row inmate, Humphrey Ejike Jefferson Eleweke, who is among the 14 prisoners from Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Pakistan, India and Indonesia, were on Tuesday told they had 72 hours to live as they faces imminent execution by the Indonesian authorities.
Preparations for the executions are intensifying at Cilacap in Central Java, the gateway to the penal island of Nusakambangan, where the prisoners will be shot dead by special police known as BRIMOB around midnight on Friday.
Ricky Gunawan, the Community Legal Aid Institute director and lawyer of Nigerian death row inmate, Ejike Eleweke, who was with the prisoners when they were served with the papers marking the beginning of the 72 hour countdown on Tuesday, said the Africans believed they had been unfairly targeted.
"They said the Indonesian government just hate us, they want to kill us because we are black," Gunawan said, adding that his Nigerian client, Eleweke, who is seeking clemency from the president but maintains his innocence, refused to sign the notification.
While Eleweke hoped for a miracle, Gunawan said, he was aware it was unlikely given Indonesians blame Africans for bringing much of the illegal drugs into the country.
Eleweke's trial judgement was one of those highlighted in the Amnesty International report When Justice Fails which raised concerns about his lack of access to a lawyer at the time of his arrest, torture and the impartiality of the court process.
Source: The Age
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