05 August 2004 :

Indonesia executed Indian national Ayodhya Prasad Chaubey arrested in 1994 for drug smuggling, carrying out its first execution in three years. Despite last minute appeals by the Indian government, Amnesty International and the European Union, Chaubey, 67, faced a firing squad in Medan, the capital of North Sumatra province.
"He was executed by firing squad at 2:30 this morning ... He was buried about three hours later at a Muslim cemetery," Kemas Yahya Rachman, a spokesman for the attorney general's office, said.
Rachman said Chaubey, sentenced to death for smuggling 12 kilograms (26.4 pounds) of heroin into the country, was executed by a team of 12 policemen from an elite paramilitary unit.
"He was buried according to Muslim rites at his own behest," he said.
The Indian embassy had written to the attorney general's office asking it to spare Chaubey, a Muslim convert.
A last minute appeal was also made by the European Union, which urged Indonesia to maintain its de facto moratorium on executions.
Amnesty International had urged Indonesia to spare Chaubey and others sentenced to death, saying the penalty was a violation of the right to life and questioning whether Chaubey and others received a fair trial.
Irham Buana Nasution of the Medan chapter of the Legal Aid Institute which defended Chaubey, said the group was contemplating legal action, claiming they were denied access to their client.
He said that Chaubey's execution was "fraught with political considerations" -- although sentenced in 1994 a request for a presidential pardon and a Supreme Court review of his case were pushed through in just a few months.