《TAIPEI TIMES 焦點》 Indonesia upholds death sentence for three Taiwanese

/ Staff writer, with CNA

The Supreme Court of Indonesia on Friday upheld death sentences against three Taiwanese who were last year convicted of smuggling drugs into the nation.

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The court said the crimes committed by the three defendants would cause great harm to Indonesians, particularly young people.

The three men, surnamed Chen （陳）, Wang （王） and Luo （羅）, deserve capital punishment, the court ruled in its second trial of the case.

Amphetamines

The men were arrested at Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in 2014 after they were caught attempting to smuggle 2kg of amphetamines into the nation from Hong Kong, court documents showed.

They were sentenced to death by a Jakarta district court last year, but the sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment on appeal to the Indonesian High Court.

However, prosecutors appealed the High Court decision and in January the Supreme Court sentenced the defendants to death.

The three men then filed an extraordinary appeal that on Friday was turned down by the Supreme Court.

They are the first Taiwanese sentenced to death in Indonesia for drug smuggling since Indonesian President Joko Widodo took office two years ago.

Widodo has cracked down on drug-related crimes, saying that drugs are destructive to young Indonesians and has advocated for the death penalty for convicted drug dealers.

In August, a Jakarta district court sentenced four Taiwanese to death for possession of 26kg of amphetamines. They have since appealed the verdict.

About 30 Taiwanese convicted of drug-related crimes are behind bars in Jakarta and Central Java, Indonesian authorities said.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES