Indonesia carries out first execution since 2008

The Indonesian authorities want to promote a tough anti-drugs stance

The authorities in Indonesia have carried out their first execution for more than four years.

Officials confirmed that Adami Wilson, a Malawi national convicted of drugs smuggling, was executed by firing squad north of Jakarta on Thursday night.

The human-rights group Amnesty International called the execution a "shocking and regressive step".

Wilson was sentenced to death in 2004 after he was found guilty of smuggling 1kg (2.2lb) of heroin into the country.

His execution in the Pulau Seribu island chain is the first in Indonesia since 2008.

The attorney general's office told the AP news agency that nine other convicts were due to be executed this year.

Amnesty says that more than 140 people are on death row in Indonesia, mostly for drug crimes. About a third of them are foreigners.

"We oppose the death penalty in all circumstances, but Indonesia's long period without executions and the pledge to put even more people to death, makes this even more shocking," said Amnesty's Papang Hidayat.