Prime Minister David Cameron must challenge Indonesian President Joko Widodo over the country’s woeful human rights record during his visit to the UK this week, Amnesty International said today.

President Widodo is in London on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Papang Hidayat, Indonesia Researcher at Amnesty International, said:

“Trade deals must not be made by the UK government at the expense of condemning the deeply troubling human rights abuses which have taken place under President Widodo’s leadership.

“This is a President whose ruthless ‘war on drugs’ led to 14 executions last year to the horror of the watching world, with more promised for this year.

“Mr Cameron should also be raising alarm over more than 100 canings from last year for perceived moral offences including a sixty-year-old Christian woman who allegedly sold some alcohol in Aceh province.”

Amnesty’s concerns include the following:

• In 2015 Indonesia executed 14 people, including 12 foreigners and 2 Indonesian nationals

• The Indonesian Attorney General announced this month that a further ten people will be executed
• The caning of a sixty-year-old Christian woman for allegedly selling alcohol in Aceh province, the first non-Muslim to be punished under controversial Shari’a laws.
• In 2015 alone, Amnesty International recorded at least 108 canings in Aceh province under Shari’a law for gambling, drinking alcohol or “adultery”
• Steven Itlay, a Papuan political activist, was this month charged with having committed “rebellion” and faces life imprisonment
• Amnesty has designated 29 prisoners of conscience in Maluku, and a further 27 in Papua