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'They want to kill me because I am black' - Nigerian sentenced to death in Indonesia
http://www.africaeagle.com/2016/07/they-want-to-kill-me-because-i-am-black.html
Eleweke, who is one of the four Nigerians who are up for execution, after the country's president, Joko Widodo, refused to grant them amnesty, have been transferred to Nusakambangan prison island where the country normally puts convicts to death, is still insisting on his innocence and has refused to sign his execution papers in protest.
The 14 death row prisoners, mostly from Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Pakistan, India and Indonesia, were on Tuesday, July 26, told they had 72 hours to live, and will be tied to the stakes by Friday.
But after several last minute appeals for a stay of execution failed to sway Widodo, a human rights group, Community Legal Aid Institute, got to Elewekeand some of the convicts who said they are being killed because they are blacks and believed they had been unfairly targeted.
The Institute Director and Jefferson's lawyer, Ricky Gunawan, said the convict told him he is innocent of the crime he has been convicted of.
"The Indonesian government just hate us, they want to kill us because we are black," Elewekewas reported as telling Gunawan.
Gunawan told reporters:
"While Mr Eleweke hoped for a miracle, he was aware it was unlikely, given Indonesians blame Africans for bringing much of the illegal drugs into the country.
Mr Eleweke's trial judgement included the statement that black-skinned people from Nigeria are under surveillance by police because they are suspected of drug trafficking in Indonesia."
"His case was one of those highlighted in the Amnesty International report 'When Justice Fails', which raised concerns about his lack of access to a lawyer at the time of his arrest, torture and the impartiality of the court process."
This guy maybe innocent but it does not appear right to attribute racial motives to the country's justice policy. God knows the truth but if that were to be the case why wouldn't they have been denied Visa in the first instance or deported for immigration offences? Since an Indonesian was also convicted and executed along how does the racial issue come in or would Indonesia decide to execute an innocent citizen of theirs to prove a point? If the racial hatred were so real what are other blacks still doing in Indonesia and why did these ones wait for so long before they were arrested for prosecution? Even in Nigeria when people are arrested for criminal offences they start shouting they are persecuted bcos of their tribe or ethnicity.Miscarriage of justice happens occasionally in every land but unfortunately there are no second chances when it comes to capital punishment.
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