Brazil angry at Indonesia execution

Brazil has protested against the execution of one its citizens in Indonesia for drug trafficking.

Marco Archer Cardoso Moreira, 53, was arrested in 2003 after police at Jakarta airport found 13.4 kg of cocaine hidden in his hang glider.

Brazil says he was the first Brazilian national to be executed abroad and has warned it will damage relations.

Five other convicts, from Indonesia, Malawi, Nigeria, Vietnam and the Netherlands, were executed on Saturday.

Convicted of drugs charges, they faced the firing squad in Central Java province.

Five were executed on the island of Nusa Kambangan and the other one, a Vietnamese woman was executed in the small central Javanese town of Boyolali.

Indonesia has some of the world's toughest drug laws. The country resumed executions in 2013 after an unofficial four-year moratorium.

President Joko Widodo has said that he will show no mercy towards drug criminals because they have ruined the lives of so many.

'Shadow over relations'

President Dilma Rousseff made a plea for clemency on Friday, but it was rejected by Mr Widodo.

Security was reinforced at the main gate of the high security prison in Nusa Kambangan

Relatives visited death row prisoners earlier in the week

The executions mark the first use of the death penalty since Mr Widodo took office in October

Ms Rousseff told her Indonesian counterpart that she respected the sovereignty and judicial system of his country but as a mother and head of state she was making the appeal for humanitarian reasons.

Brazil says Mr Widodo said he understood the Brazilian president's concern but said he could not commute the sentence as the full legal process had been followed.

"The president profoundly regretted this position of the Indonesian government and called attention to the fact that without any doubt it casts a shadow over relations between the two countries," said the Brazilian presidential aide Marco Aurelio Garcia.

"Indonesian law allows for clemency, but the president [of Indonesia] has denied this clemency," added Mr Garcia.

Human rights group Amnesty International urged the Indonesian government to halt executions immediately, and eventually abolish the death penalty.

Moreira said in a video recorded by a friend that he regretted trying to smuggle cocaine into Indonesia.

"I am aware that I committed a serious offence, but I believe I deserve another chance. Everyone makes mistakes."

Brazil abolished the death penalty in times of peace when it became a republic in 1889.

Brazil angry at Indonesia execution

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