JAKARTA, Oct 15 (Reuters) - Indonesia violated international human rights laws by executing 14 drug offenders this year, exposing its weak criminal justice system, Amnesty International said on Thursday.
Indonesia, one of the region's biggest markets for narcotics, has harsh penalties for drug crimes but in 2008 put a hold on the use of the death penalty for five years.
"The resumption of executions in Indonesia represents a U-turn on the country's achievements towards abolition and exposes the weakness of its criminal justice system," Amnesty said.
It called on the government to reinstate the moratorium "as a first step towards abolition of the death penalty".
The report said four of the executed prisoners "did not have access to legal counsel from the time of arrest and at different stages of their trial and appeals". Most of the 14 were foreigners.
President Joko Widodo has been unwavering in rejecting clemency pleas for drug traffickers since he took office last year, citing a "narcotics emergency" that he says is killing at least 40 people a day. Researchers have questioned the reliability of those figures. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N0XZ4H1