Attorney General Urged to Immediately Execute Drug Convicts

Jakarta (Antara) - Legislator from Commission III of the Parliament Ruhut Sitompol urged the attorney general to immediate carryout the death penalty on a number of drug convicts, whose appeal for clemency has been rejected by the president. "I will strongly insist on immediate execution of the death penalty," Ruhut, a lawmaker from the Democrat Party, said here on Monday. Convicts who have committed gross crimes deserve heavy punishment, he added. Attorney General HM Prasetyo said late last year the death penalty would be carried out after the president rejected appeal for clemency. The execution, however, was delayed after the Constitutional Court said that convicts with death penalty could ask for a review of their cases more than once if they could produce new evidence against the verdict. Ruhut said the penalty could be carried out immediately despite the decision of the Constitutional Court especially as the verdict has been meted out years earlier. (*)