Indonesia preparing to execute more foreign drug convicts

JAKARTA — Indonesia is preparing to execute more foreigners convicted of drug offenses as it maintains a contentious policy of imposing capital punishment for drug crimes.

Attorney General Muhammad Prasetyo said Thursday that his office is looking for the right time to carry out the executions.

He did not specify how many convicts would face firing squads in what would be the third set of executions under President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's administration.

"We are still concentrating on drug convicts. We want to see a deterrent effect," Prasetyo said when asked whether people convicted of other death-penalty crimes such as murder would be executed. "We are waiting for the right time" to carry out the executions, he said.

Indonesia has extremely strict drug laws and more than 130 people are on death row, mostly for drug crimes. About a third of them are foreigners.

Fourteen people convicted of drug-related crimes, mostly foreigners, were executed last year amid an international outcry. Indonesia's relations with Australia were particularly strained following the execution of two of its nationals in April last year.

Local media reports quoted the chief of the Jakarta prosecutor's office as saying 10 foreigners would be executed: four Nigerians, two Malaysians, two Americans, one Zimbabwean and one Senegalese.

In the past, Indonesia has avoided executions during Islam's holy month of Ramadan.