TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Foreign Affairs Ministry’s Director of Protection of Indonesian Citizens and Legal Entities, Judha Nugraha, in a discussion on Monday revealed that 206 Indonesian citizens incarcerated abroad faced death penalties in 2021.

“There are 206 cases in total as of October, with 79 of them are inkracht (a final and binding court ruling),” said Nugraha in the discussion about death sentences, gender-based violence, and torture against women on October 18, Antaranews reported.

Among the hundreds of Indonesians facing death penalties, he said most were residing in Malaysia with 188 sentenced to death. Other countries handing out death sentences are Saudi Arabia (5), United Arab Emirate (4), Laos (3), China (2), and one each in Vietnam, Myanmar, and Singapore.

“Most of their cases involve narcotics,” he added. Besides narcotics, there were also other cases related to murder. Referring to their gender, 39 of them are women.

He explained that the Indonesian Foreign Affairs Ministry in 2021 continued to assist the Indonesians and do its best to prevent them from being handed the death sentence with two successful cases involving a West Java resident and a West Nusa Tenggara resident who were freed from death row for murder cases.

In general, from 2011 to 2021, the Ministry managed to help 516 Indonesians out of death penalties.

Read: PDIP Politician Calls for Elimination of Death Penalty

ANTARA