Rodrigo Lawyers Reject Client's Planned Execution

Cilacap, C Java (Antara Bali) - Lawyers of Rodrigo Gularte, a death row convict who has received notification, rejected the planned execution of their client because the convict is mentally ill.

"We firmly reject the execution. The execution cannot be carried out on a person who is mentally ill. It is obvious that Rodrigo is mentally ill. All inmates know that," Christina Windiarti, one of the lawyers in Rodrigo's defense team, said here on Saturday night.

She said there were nine convicts on death row who had received execution notifications, one of them was Rodrigo.

Therefore, she said, her team will continue to make legal efforts to seek for the cancellation of Rodrigo's planned execution.

"We will make efforts maximally," she said.

In the meantime, Utomo Karim, a lawyer of Raheem Agbaje Salami who is another death row convict, said he was resigned to the notification that his client had received.

"We have received the execution notification. We do not now yet whether the execution will be carried out on Tuesday night or at the wee hours on Wednesday. If I am not mistaken, there were seven convicts who have received notifications," Utomo Karim said.

He said the number of convicts who received notifications could likely increase furthere.

The attorney general office has ordered preparations for the execution of 11 death row convicts.

The order was issued on Thursday for the  the prosecutors in charge of the execution, chief spokesman of the attorney general office Tony Tribagus Spontana said in Jakarta on Friday.

The order came after the Supreme Court rejected an appeal from Mary Jane  Fiesta Veloso  for a review of her case last month.

Mary Jane from the Philippines was already moved from the Sleam prison  in Yogyakarta to the island of Nusakambangan off southern Central Java, where the country already executed a number of death row convicts earlier.

Mary Jane arrived on the island early in the morning of Friday.      

Mary Jane, arrested by the Yogyakarta's  Adisucipto port authorities, carrying 2.6 kilograms of heroine  in 2010.

She was later sentenced to death by the Slem district court.

Tony refused to confirm that the order for preparation and the moving of Mary Jane to Nusakambangan indicated that the time for execution is imminent .

"It is not an order for execution and it not a notification for the convicts," Tony said.

Altogether 10 death row convicts mostly on drug smuggling and trafficking are facing execution after their appeal for lenience were turned down by President Joko Widodo.

The president has said he would reject all appeals for leniency from drug convicts he blamed for the death of around 50 drug users in Indonesian every day.

Indonesia has received strong protests from a number of countries against the execution. (WDY)