Myuran Sukumaran, one of the ringleaders of the infamous Bali Nine, was executed by firing squad on Nusakambangan Island in Java, Indonesia, Today (28th April 2015).<\/p>\n
The British-born Australian national, originally from Sri Lanka, was executed at approximately 6.25 p.m. (UK time) with seven others of the drug ring. Mary Jane Veloso from the Philippines was spared at the last minute.<\/p>\n
The Bali Nine were a group of nine Australians, who made headlines in 2005 for planning to smuggle 8.3kg of heroin valued at US$3.1 million (\u00a32 million) from Indonesia to Australia. Myuran Sukumaran and three others were arrested at the Melasti Hotel in Kuta, where Police found 334g of heroin hidden in a suitcase in his room.<\/p>\n
According the testimonies given in Court by convicted drug mules, Myuran Sukumaran and his fellow school friend, Andrew Chan, were the leaders of the drug smuggling operation. He had been on the death row since February 2006, after Depasar District Court sentenced him to execution by firing squad for his role in a drug-smuggling plot.<\/p>\n
Myuran Sukumaran\u2019s close family met him for the last time before his execution. His brother, Chintu, said: \u201cWe spent the last few hours with my brother. We didn\u2019t have much time. There were so many things to talk about.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cWe did talk about the death penalty and he knows this is just a waste. It\u2019s not going to solve anything with drugs.\u201cTomorrow, next week, next month, it\u2019s still not going to stop anything with drugs. If these nine people die today, it\u2019s still not going to stop anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
His mother, Raji, bid a tearful goodbye to her son: \u201cI just had to say goodbye to my son and I won\u2019t see him again.\u201d<\/p>\n
She was joined by Myuran Sukumaran\u2019s sister, Brintha, in their plea to the Indonesian President Joko Widodo to call off the executions. Brintha said: \u201cPlease do not do this to my brother. Please don\u2019t take my brother from me.\u201d
\nJust hours before the execution, the Australian and French Governments also voiced their support for the family\u2019s appeal to President Widodo. Their joint statement with the European Union (EU) read: \u201cWe fully respect the sovereignty of Indonesia. But we are against the death penalty in our country and abroad.\u201d (CNN)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Myuran Sukumaran, one of the ringleaders of the infamous Bali Nine, was executed by firing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":348,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[9,10,19,33,2],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Myuran.jpg",650,366,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Myuran-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Myuran-300x169.jpg",300,169,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Myuran.jpg",640,360,false],"large":["https:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Myuran.jpg",640,360,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Myuran.jpg",650,366,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Myuran.jpg",650,366,false],"enternews-featured":["https:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Myuran.jpg",650,366,false],"enternews-medium":["https:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Myuran.jpg",650,366,false],"enternews-thumbnail":["https:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Myuran.jpg",480,270,false]},"author_info":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/?author=1"},"category_info":"Stories<\/a>","tag_info":"Stories","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=347"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":349,"href":"https:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347\/revisions\/349"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}