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Indonesia to

execute coup

plotters

JAKARTA: Indonesian Justice Minister Utojo Usman said two political prisoners, on death row for alleged involvement in an abortive communist coup in 1965, would be executed, the official Antara news agency reported on Tuesday.

The agency quoted Usman as telling reporters on Monday the two prisoners Bungkus (one word) and Natanel Marsudi would be executed soon.

"The Justice Minister did not deny that Bungkus and Marsudi will be executed even though he could not say when and where they will be executed," Antara said.

Human rights activists said earlier they would be executed for their involvement in a 1965 coup blamed on the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI). The men are being detained at Cipinang jail in east Jakarta.

Bungkus and Marsudi were members of the presidential guard of then president Sukarno, who died under house arrest in 1970.

Three high-profile prisoners, also jailed and originally sentenced to death for similar crimes, were released last week after being granted clemency by Suharto.

The PKI was banned in 1966 and its defeat led to Suharto, then a young army general, becoming Indonesia's second president.-Reuter