International

SP Member of Parliament Harry van Bommel wants to see the Netherlands urging Indonesia to abandon the death penalty. ‘Early in this year a delegation from the government, including the Prime Minister, will visit Indonesia,’ he explains. The opportunity presented by this trip to urge the suspension of the implementation of the death penalty should be grasped.’

In Indonesia last weekend Dutch citizen Ang Kiem Soei – along with five others - was executed by firing squad. They were sentenced to death for their involvement in the production of drugs. Protests from the Dutch government achieved nothing. What was striking about these executions was that they were the first for some time, as in Indonesia the death penalty is generally no longer carried out. Yesterday the Dutch Parliament in The Hague debated the executions, which threaten to be the first of a number being applied to condemned persons, amongst them another Dutch citizen.

‘I’ve called on the minister to urge Indonesia to suspend the implementation of the death penalty, and he has promised to do so during the visit,’ says Van Bommel. ‘I greatly hope that the Indonesian government will listen to this plea and that others can be spared Ang Kiem Soei’s fate.’