Crocodiles could guard death row convicts in Indonesia

The head of Indonesia‘s anti-drug agency has said that they may consider creating a prison facility on an island surrounded by crocodiles.

Crocodiles cannot be bribed according to the head of the anti-drug agency in Indonesia Image by William Warby / CC BY 2.0

The prison would be for prisoners convicted of drug smuggling, which Indonesia punishes extremely severely. Budi Waseso said that they were considering employing crocodiles since the animals were more reliable than people in that they couldn’t be bribed.

Waseso told local news website Tempo, that things are already underway to getting the facility set up. “We will place as many crocodiles as we can there,” he is quoted as saying. However, neither the location nor the opening date of the jail have been decided.

Family members of Australian death row prisoners Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran and Australian Consul General in the Indonesian island of Bali Majell Hind, right, head to Nusakambangan Island by a ship at Wijaya Pura port in Cilacap, Central Java, Indonesia. Image by (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)

Indonesia’s strict drug laws that make drug offences punishable by death received a huge amount of media coverage in April of this year, when a group of traffickers (known as the Bali Nine) and other individuals were executed in spite of the efforts of international diplomacy and human rights groups to spare their lives. The topic became increasingly controversial as Indonesia warned against western interference in a domestic issue.