One of the inmates in Indonesia on death row is Gurdip Singh. Singh was found guilty of trying to smuggle 300g of heroin into Indonesia in 2004. He was sentenced to death by the state district court in Tangerang in 2005. Prosecutors had initially recommended a sentence of 20 years. Singh retracted an initial statement he made against Pakistani national Zulfiqar Ali, admitting he was coerced into making the false admission in return for a more lenient sentence for himself.
48 year old Gurdip Singh hails from Jalandhar, Punjab and Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said on Wednesday that India was making last minute efforts to save him from execution.
If the execution orders go ahead, it can take place as early as this weekend. All 14 prisoners have been moved to Isolation holding cells on Nusa Kambangan. This is the prison island off Central Java where two rounds of executions were held last year, including that of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumuran.
The inmates have been informed of their fate in accordance of Indonesian law and their families visited them on Wednesday
Lawyers in Indonesia are scrambling to lodge a last minute clemency appeal with the President Joko Widodo to spare the lives of these inmates.
UN human rights officials have also expressed concerns over the planned executions and have urged Jakarta to put an end to capital punishment. Indonesia has some of the world’s toughest drug laws and has already executed 14 drug convicts last year, much to international condemnation. Most of those convicts were also foreigners.
