Mentally ill Brazilian drug convict 'unaware he was being executed', says witness
Death row inmates shook hands with wards and were shot in the cover of darkness, says spiritual counsel
A Brazilian man executed in Indonesia for drug trafficking who was diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder did not understand what was happening to him until his final moments, a priest assigned as his spiritual adviser told Australia’s ABC radio on Thursday.
Rodrigo Muxfeldt Gularte was among eight people convicted of drug offences from several countries who were executed shortly after midnight on Wednesday morning.
Brazil had made repeated personal pleas for Indonesia to commute his sentence on humanitarian grounds, citing his mental illness.
Father Charlie Burrows, a local priest who accompanied Gularte in his final hours, told ABC he thought he had prepared the Brazilian for the execution.
“I thought I’d got him ready, that he was going to be put in chains, because he didn’t like being touched ... I said to him, 'Well I’m 72, when you get up to heaven you’ll know where I’m going to live, prepare a garden or something,'” Burrows said.
Gularte was calm as he was handcuffed by warders but became agitated when he was handed over to police outside the jail who put leg chains on him, Burrows said.