The Netherlands has recalled its ambassador to Indonesia following the execution of Dutch national Ang Kiem Soei shortly after midnight on Sunday local time.

Ang Kiem Soei was one of six people shot by a firing squad for drugs offences. He had been on death row since 2003 for the production of ecstasy.

King Willem-Alexander had been in touch with president Joko Widodo in an effort to halt the execution, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

A last-ditch phone call from the king to foreign minister Retno Marsud also failed to persuade the Indonesian authorities not to carry out the sentence, the NRC reported, quoting sources in Indonesia.

Marsudi was Indonesia’s ambassador to the Netherlands until her new appointment last October. The king had also hosted a farewell reception for her, the NRC said.

Foreign minister Bart Koenders condemned the killing in a statement, saying the execution of Ang and five others is ‘deeply sad’.

The death penalty is a ‘savage and inhuman’ punishment which is ‘an unacceptable denial of human dignity and integrity,’ the statement said. ‘The Netherlands will continue to campaign for the end of the death penalty in Indonesia and the rest of the world.’

Ang Kiem Soei’s lawyer Bart Stapert accused the Indonesian authorities of an ‘inhuman action’ in refusing to allow his family to wash his body prior to his cremation, which was carried out almost immediately.

Ang’s wife and four children live in Utrecht.

Brazil has also recalled its ambassador to Indonesia following the execution of one of its nationals. The others came from Nigeria, Malawi, Vietnam and Indonesia.