Jakarta: While there are foreigners languishing on death row across Asia, where several countries impose the death penalty for drugs offences, it is rare for authorities to execute them.
Indonesia`s decision to put eight foreigners to death for drugs offences, all of whom are expected to face the firing squad imminently, has sparked international outrage.
Jakarta has sharply increased executions in the past two years, with President Joko Widodo a vocal supporter of executing drug traffickers, and Amnesty International says it is bucking a global trend of fewer death sentences being carried out.
According to international human rights law, the death penalty should only be applied for the most serious crimes, such as murder, but that is far from the case in Asia.
Here are several countries and territories in the region that impose the death penalty for drugs offences:
The world`s top producer of opiate drugs, Afghanistan rarely carries out executions for drug-related offenses. Law enforcement remains weak in the war-torn country, despite a multi-billion-dollar US-led campaign to crack down on booming opium production.
Bangladesh does not release figures for the number of people sentenced to death or the number of executions carried out but hundreds are believed to be on death row, including at least half a dozen opposition figures for committing atrocities during the country`s 1971 war of independence.
Brunei mandates death for drug trafficking but is not known to have carried out executions for any type of crime over the past decade, according to Amnesty International, and effectively has an unofficial moratorium in place.
China has the highest number of executions in the world, according to Amnesty International, although the number is kept a secret. It imposes the death penalty for drug traffickers and executes people by firing squad or lethal injection.
Some 278 people were on death row at the end of 2014, according to India`s Death Penalty Research Project. India carried out two hangings in 2012 and 2013, breaking an eight-year unofficial moratorium. Indian courts hand down death sentences in "rarest of rare" cases. A landmark judgement by India`s top court in 2014 commuted the death sentences of 15 convicts to life imprisonment, noting the inordinate delay in deciding their mercy pleas.
Around 140 convicts are on death row in Indonesia, including about 60 for drugs crimes. Around 30 death row drug convicts are foreigners. The group facing imminent execution is made up of eight foreigners and one Indonesian, as Jakarta seeks to demonstrate it is serious about tackling drug offences.
Widodo, who took office in October and has taken a tough line against drug traffickers, has rejected all clemency appeals for those sentenced to death on drugs charges.
Indonesia imposed a moratorium on executions between 2009 and 2012, but then resumed them in 2013. No one was executed in 2014.
