MEA Makes Last Minute Efforts to Save Gurdip from Execution

India has reached out to Indonesia to save an Indian man from execution in drug peddling case.

MEA makes last minute effort to save Gurdip who will be executed on 29 July at 12:05 AM

As last minute efforts, India has reached out to Indonesia to save an Indian national from execution in a drug trafficking case. India has requested to exhaust all legal recourses before the death penalty was carried out. Gurdip Singh, 48, was found guilty by an Indonesian court of trying to smuggle in 300 grams of heroin and was given death penalty in 2005. 

He is among the 14 death row convicts who are likely to be executed on 29 July. The convicts include four Indonesians, six Nigerians, two Zimbabweans and one Pakistani.

Singh, who hails from Jalandhar in Punjab, is among 14 people who are facing execution after the authorities decided to resume implementing death penalties. The decision was criticised by human rights organisations.

The UN Chief Ban Ki-moon has also appealed to the Indonesian government to stop imminent execution of the prisoners for alleged drug-related crimes.

Gurdip was arrested on 29 August, 2004, at the Soekarno Hatta Airport on charges of drug trafficking. The Tangerang Court awarded him Capital Punishment in February 2005, against the prosecutors’ request for 20 years imprisonment. His appeal against the death penalty was turned down by the High Court of Banten in May, 2005. He then appealed to the Supreme Court which also upheld his death penalty. He is currently detained at Nusakambangan Pasir Putih, Cilacap.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday said that the government was making last minute efforts to save Singh.

Video Editor: Purnendu Pritam