REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, CILACAP -- Death row prisoner, Merry Utami, has been moved from the Tangerang prison in Banten, to the Nusakambangan island off this southern Java coastal city.

Merry arrived at the Wijaya terminal here on Sunday morning with a tight police guard to be ferried to the notorious island, where a number of drug death convicts have been and would be executed.

Earlier, Attorney General HM Prasetyo indicated execution of drug convicts with death sentence would be carried out soon.

"Central Java police have also tightened security. They have agreed with us to create coordination," Prasetyo said.

Merry, who was arrested at Jakarta's Soekarno Hatta airport trying to smuggle 1.1 kilograms of heroine into the country, had been held at the women's prison after she was convicted by the Tangerang district court in 2003.

Security official, who preferred to remain anonymous, said Merry would be brought to the Batu prison on the island waiting for her execution with a number of other drug convicts.

The execution plan has drawn sharp criticism especially from human rightists in the country.

Chairman of the Setara Institute Hendardi said the government's plan to execute the death row prisoners is an attempt to hide the poor performance of the law enforcement agencies especially the attorney general.

"So far Attorney General M Prasetyo has not come up with a break through and satisfactory performance. He even busied himself with politics as he did in the case of Setya Novanto," Hendardi said.

Earlier, the attorney general accused Setya Novanto (now general chairman of Golkar) of criminal plot in connection with alleged attempt demanding a share in a project of the U.S. mining company Freeport Indonesia in Papua.

Now, however, the Novanto case looked to have been dumped.

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