Brazil, Netherlands recall ambassadors after Indonesian executions

Brazil and the Netherlands have recalled their ambassadors to Indonesia after the south-east Asian country executed five foreigners and an Indonesian woman on drug trafficking charges.

Brazilian Marco Archer Cardoso Moreira, 53, was one of the people executed on Sunday. He was arrested in 2003 after police at Jakarta airport found 13.4 kg of cocaine hidden in his hang glider.

Five other convicts from Indonesia, Malawi, Nigeria, Vietnam and the Netherlands, were also executed by a firing squad in Central Java province on Sunday shortly after midnight local time.

Five were executed on the island of Nusa Kambangan and the other one, a Vietnamese woman, was executed in the small central Javanese town of Boyolali.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said in a statement that she was "outraged and dismayed".

"Relations between the two countries have been affected," Rousseff said. "The Brazilian ambassador to Jakarta has been recalled for consultations.

Rousseff had made a plea for clemency on Friday, but it was rejected by Indonesian President Joko Widodo.

She told Widodo that she respected the sovereignty and judicial system of his country but as a mother and head of state she was making the appeal for humanitarian reasons.

Brazil says Widodo said he understood the Brazilian president's concerns but that he could no nothing about Moreira’s sentence as the full legal process had been followed.

Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koendars called the Indonesian execution of Dutch citizen Ang Kiem Soe, 52, "an unacceptable denial of human dignity and integrity".

Indonesia resumed executions for drug charges in 2013 after an unofficial four-year moratorium.

The country's Attorney General Muhammad Prasetyo said that he hoped “this will have a deterrent effect".

Human rights group Amnesty International have urged Indonesia to halt executions immediately, and eventually abolish the death penalty.