JAKARTA: Indonesia put to death a Malawian drug trafficker yesterday, the government said, in the country’s first execution for several years.
Adami Wilson was executed by firing squad in the Thousand Islands, an archipelago popular with holidaymakers to the north of the capital Jakarta, Attorney General Basrief Arief said.
Wilson, sentenced to death in August 2005 for smuggling 1kg (2.2 pounds) of heroin into Indonesia, was the first of 10 people scheduled to be put to death this year.
There have been no reports of executions since 2008, when five people were put to death.
No one jailed on the resort island of Bali, where many foreigners are held mainly on drug offences, is due to be executed this year as they are pursuing legal challenges.
Meanwhile, police shot dead three suspected militants and seized 14 homemade explosives, in the latest of a series of deadly raids.
Police conducted raids in the capital Jakarta and on its outskirts after the suspected militants robbed a jewellery store last weekend.
“Three were shot dead and four were arrested,” police spokesman Boy Rafli Amar said.
He said the suspects were shot after resisting arrest in three raids. Police confiscated 14 homemade bombs, five homemade firearms, 34 munitions and 1kg of gold.
Police said those involved in Sunday’s robbery were part of a terrorist network. “We managed to cut their funding from abroad... that’s the reason they carried out the robbery,” a police official said.
Police have linked several robberies in recent years to the funding of militancy. AFP
