Jakarta – The Indonesian government is yet to decide on whether it will execute drug traffickers this year, but has said it will focus more on improving the economy for the next seven to eight months.
"We'll see what happens. We are still studying this very carefully. Maybe we could [continue with executions] this year, or maybe next year," Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan said in Jakarta on Friday.
Luhut said Indonesia had been disturbed by noisy, annoying comments from the public about the death penalty's implementation. "So we have to calculate very carefully when using the death penalty," he said.
According to 2015 data from the National Narcotics Agency, there are 14 drug convicts currently waiting to face the firing squad. Last year Indonesia put to death 14 drug convicts, including two Australians that were part of the Bali Nine group, Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan.