JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian officials said Monday that two Dutch citizens imprisoned in Indonesia on drug trafficking charges will be deported to the Netherlands later the next day following an agreement between the two countries.
The two prisoners, one of whom was sentenced to death, were handed over by Indonesian authorities to Dutch authorities at a prison in Jakarta before a night flight.
At the handover ceremony, these people all wore baseball caps and bright green T-shirts. They are being treated for health problems and the Netherlands has requested their repatriation on humanitarian grounds.
I Nyoman Gede Surya Mataram, Indonesia’s Deputy Minister for Immigration and Correctional Coordination, told a news conference in Jakarta that the two men will continue to serve their sentences in the Netherlands.
Death row inmate Siegfried Mets, 74, was convicted of his involvement in the shipment of 600,000 ecstasy pills from the Netherlands to Indonesia. He has been held in a prison in Jakarta since February 2008.
In December 2014, another prisoner, Ali Tokman, 65, was detained at Surabaya airport after customs officials found just over 6 kilograms (13.5 pounds) of brown ecstasy, a psychoactive drug. He has been sentenced to life imprisonment for 11 years.
Indonesia under President Prabowo Subianto has repatriated several foreign prisoners under bilateral agreements with their respective countries. They include a Filipino sentenced to death for drugs, five Australians convicted of heroin trafficking, and two British citizens sentenced to death and life imprisonment for smuggling drugs into Indonesia.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime says that although Indonesia has some of the world’s strictest anti-drug laws, it remains a major drug trafficking hub, in part because international drug cartels target its young population.
Figures from the Ministry of Immigration and Corrections last month showed that about 530 people are on death row in Indonesia, mostly for drug-related offences, including nearly 100 foreigners. Indonesia last executed one citizen and three foreigners in July 2016.