April 28
PAKISTAN----executions
2 death row convicts hanged in Haripur----The dead bodies of the prisoners were
handed to their heirs after execution.
2 death row convicts were hanged in the Central Jail Haripur on early Thursday
morning, Dunya News reported. The dead bodies of the prisoners were handed over
to their families after the execution.
According to details, death row convict Ali Raza was hanged for killing a man
in 2004 while prisoner Farhad was executed for murdering a man in 1997.
6-year moratorium on death penalty was lifted on December 17, 2014 for those
convicted for terrorism a day after the deadly attack on Army Public School in
Peshawar that left 150 persons including mostly children dead. There are more
than 8,000 prisoners on death row in the country.
(source: Dunya News)
INDONESIA:
A year after the Bali 9 executions, Indonesia prepares firing squads again ----
Deaths of 8 prisoners, including 2 Australians, prompted a huge outcry - and a
pause in executions. But now foreigners on death row fear their own sentences
could be just weeks away
There's chatter that it's on.
Talk that the death squad is at the ready; that a new, bigger execution ground
is in the making. Officials say it could be just weeks away.
And after the circus last year, the security minister Luhut Panjaitan hopes
there will be less "drama" this time around.
1 year after the international uproar and the diplomatic fallout over the
execution of 8 drug traffickers - including 2 Australian men, Bali 9 pair
Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran - it appears more executions could be on
Indonesia's horizon this year. Among the foreigners on death row in Indonesia
are 2 Britons, convicted drug smugglers Lindsay Sandiford and Gareth Cashmore.
"I still don't want to believe it," says lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis, who this
time last year was fighting to save the lives of Chan and Sukumaran. "Yes,
there will probably be a statement, but in the end I don't think there will be
any executions. I refuse to believe it."
After 14 prisoners were executed at dawn in 2 separate rounds in early 2015, a
3rd round has been on hold for the past year, ostensibly for economic reasons,
but perhaps, in part, for political ones, too.
Yet after whatever fallout there might have been, Australia's recalled
ambassador has returned (after a 5-week protest), and executions are back on
the agenda.
This month, even as Indonesia was being booed at the United Nations for
reiterating its support for the death penalty for drug offenders - a punitive
action that runs counter to international law - the attorney general Muhammad
Prasetyo indicated that another round would go ahead.
British prime minister David Cameron said he had raised the case of Sandiford -
the English woman sentenced to death for smuggling almost 4kg of cocaine into
Bali - during an official visit to Jakarta last year. But on Jokowi's return
visit to London earlier this month, there were no indications that her case -
or that of fellow death row Briton Gareth Cashmore - was revisited.
When questioned on the matter by German chancellor Angela Merkel on a recent
visit to Berlin, Indonesian president Joko Widodo, or Jokowi, defended capital
punishment as a justified approach to the country's "drug emergency".
There is nothing definitive yet, no date, and no official list of the next
prisoners to face the firing squad: the Indonesian government is keeping its
cards close to the chest. But some are still operating on the assumption that
it is probably just a matter of time.
"The last information we received is that the attorney general has asked the
parliament for the budget for the 3rd round," says Putri Kanesia, from the
Jakarta-based human rights organisation Kontras. "But they should stop and
evaluate the 1st and 2nd batch. There were a lot of unfair trials."
According to Amnesty International, there were at least 165 people on death row
in Indonesia at the end of 2015, and more than 40% of those were sentenced for
drug-related crimes. Indonesia has some of the harshest drug laws in the world,
and Jokowi has stated that no drug prisoner will receive a pardon from him.
But the Kontras team is currently pushing to get the case details of one death
row prisoner on to the president's desk.
Allegedly tortured in detention, and told by his lawyer that he did not have
the right to appeal, Yusman Telaumbanua was, Kontras claims, a minor when the
crime for which he was convicted was committed. This would make it illegal to
execute him under Indonesian law.
"We learned from the experience of Mary Jane Veloso," explains Kanesia,
referring to the last-minute - albeit temporary - reprieve granted by the
president to the Filipino woman slated to be killed alongside Chan and
Sukumaran a year ago.
"We have to give Jokowi information about unfair trials that led to the death
penalty," she says. "Maybe we can make him think twice."
Fresh to the presidency, and to foreign affairs, some say Jokowi failed to
anticipate the diplomatic blowback of signing off on the executions last year.
The more the international community jumped up and down, the more the stakes
were raised - and the harder it became for him to back out without looking
weak.
The reality, and perhaps the uncomfortable truth for some looking in at
Indonesia's drug policy, is that the executions generated strong support at
home.
"I think the discourse around drug policy for Jokowi has always been and
continues to be a very political, politically convenient decision," says
Claudia Stoicescu, a doctoral researcher at Oxford University's centre for
evidence-based intervention.
"He's seen a lot of support from Indonesians on this kind of punitive
discourse, both in terms of drug policy, and this combative language with the
war on drugs, but also with the death penalty."
Retrospectively, the lack of diplomatic finesse on the international stage did
not do Chan or Sukumaran any favours.
"Some statements by [then] prime minister Tony Abbott and also foreign minister
Julie Bishop, those probably should not have been made," Lubis, the Bali 9
lawyer, told the Guardian during an interview at his Jakarta law firm. "Because
that offends Indonesia - not only the government, but the Indonesian people. So
it was very unfortunate."
When Abbott implied that Indonesia owed Australia "a favour" in return for the
A$1bn donated in aid for the 2004 tsunami, angry Indonesians started a coin
collection drive to "pay back" their neighbour. Plastic bags full of silver
coins were later delivered to the embassy in Jakarta.
Other countries with citizens on Indonesia's death row have also been
forthright in their opposition to Indonesia's use of firing squads. French
president Francois Hollande said his government was "doing everything to keep
Serge Atlaoui alive"; the Frenchman, accused of being the "chemist" for an
ecstasy factory outside Jakarta, exhausted all legal appeals in mid-2015.
British prime minister David Cameron said he had raised the case of Sandiford,
who was sentenced to death for smuggling almost 4kg of cocaine into Bali -
during an official visit to Jakarta last year. But on Jokowi's return visit to
London earlier this month, there were no indications that her case - or that of
fellow death row Briton Cashmore - was revisited.
But a year on, and holding a stronger position in the parliament, it might not
be as politically advantageous for Jokowi to conduct further executions in
2016.
Lubis - who recently agreed to take on Sandiford's case - is optimistic that
the president might be re-evaluating his hardline stance.
"Now I believe he understands the pressure, the criticisms. And that has
probably made the attorney general a bit more cautious," he says, "Myuran
Sukumaran and Andrew Chan were executed on 29 April last year, so this is going
to be the 1st anniversary. So I guess they feel the heat."
But do they? The president and his government have continued their enthusiastic
drug crusade, with Jokowi reiterating just weeks ago on the global stage that
between 30and 50 Indonesians die each day because of drugs.
Last November, the head of the National Narcotics Agency, BNN, even
outlandishly suggested that drug offenders should be placed on a prison island
surrounded by crocodiles and piranhas.
Yet a look at the numbers shows that Indonesia might not be facing a drug
emergency at all. According to the 2015 UNODC World Drug Report, Indonesia is
on the lower end of the scale when it comes to drug usage around the region,
and certainly ranks far lower than north America and Australia.
"No, there is certainly isn't an emergency," says Stoicescu, who has done the
breakdown in her research. "In that sense, the way he [Jokowi] has used the
numbers and the statistics has also been in a very selective, opportunistic
way, to lend credibility to these political aims."
Professor Irwanto, a psychologist at Atma Jaya University in Jakarta, agrees
the war on drugs talk is not only misguided, but counterproductive. The
government, he argues, should shift its resources toward harm reduction,
rehabilitation, and education, approaches that have helped countries with far
worse drug problems than Indonesia.
Ultimately, there could be an escape from the death penalty for drug offenders,
but it could come too late for most. A provision in the new draft of the
Indonesian criminal code, which could allow for inmates to have their sentences
commuted to life imprisonment if they are rehabilitated after 10 years, is
currently awaiting debate by the Indonesian parliament.
The new draft is a so-called "priority" bill, but given the house of
representatives managed to pass only 3 laws in total in 2015, it is likely to
be years before it is even discussed.
That Chan and Sukumaran were rehabilitated failed to save them, but a year on,
Lubis is still grappling with why they were killed at all.
"I still, you know, find it difficult to reconcile with myself because I know
they were changed. They became very reformed people. So they did not deserve to
die," he says.
"So I am still struggling to have peace with myself."
(source: The Guardian)
********************
Memories of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran can help us fight the death
penalty ---- Immense public support surrounded the Mercy Campaign's effort to
save 2 Australians from death row. We can't let the lessons learnt from that go
to waste
A year on, people still approach me to talk about what they were doing and how
they were feeling the night of the Indonesian executions.
The partner of an accounting firm told me how he couldn't sleep that night, and
spent until dawn watching Sky news and crying.
A mobile phone wholesaler in Melbourne jumped on a last minute flight to Sydney
because he heard there was a vigil in Martin Place and he wanted to be around
people who cared.
Others - whose churchgoing habits were dusty - found themselves praying.
On the Mercy Campaign Facebook page, conversations went on through the night:
"I can't believe this is actually happening" or "I can't believe how affected I
am by this".
For the 1st part of last year, it felt like the executions were all anyone
could talk about. Would Indonesia do it? Could Australia intervene? Should
Australia intervene? Did the "Bali 9" pair Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan
deserve it?
There was an emotional tenor that ran through the debate that marked it as
different from other issues. Both Julie Bishop and Tanya Plibersek were at
their most compassionate and eloquent when speaking about the death penalty in
parliament.
People signed petitions (the Mercy Campaign collected 250,000 signatures),
attended vigils, wrote to the Indonesian president directly, begging that
Chan's and Sukumaran's lives be spared. Thousands of songs, pieces of artwork,
poems and videos were created pleading for mercy. We used to post them on the
campaign Facebook page, but towards the end there were so many that we couldn't
keep track.
And yet ...
A year ago 8 men - among them the Australians Chan and Sukumaran - were killed
by firing squad in Indonesia, while their families kept vigil on the mainland,
close enough to hear the gunshots.
After the sound came the fury. Australia withdrew its ambassador to Indonesia,
foreign minister Julie Bishop did not rule out reducing Australia's foreign aid
to Indonesia then-prime minister Tony Abbott also didn't mince words:
We respect Indonesia's sovereignty, but we do deplore what's been done and this
cannot be simply business as usual.
Then a lull.
No one else has been killed by firing squad in Indonesia, although plenty
remain on death row. The global outpouring of condemnation surely played a part
in this but that hasn't been the local rationale.
Earlier this year, Indonesian media reported that economic concerns over the
executions had lead to an unofficial moratorium but this is cold comfort.
Unless there is a total abolition of the death penalty in Indonesia, those on
death row are vulnerable to sudden announcements about executions - the
government needs to give only 3 days notice for an execution.
So it could happen again, and rumours are that it could happen soon. It's
already happening - all the time - in the United States, Vietnam, China, Japan,
Yemen, Egypt, India, North Korea, Malaysia just to name a few.
Australians have shown they can organise and unite en masse against the death
penalty when their citizens are at risk of being executed (Indonesia has shown
the same capacity when its citizens are subject to the death penalty abroad).
It was Chan's and Sukumaran's wish that the fight against the death penalty
continue regardless of the outcome of their own clemency plea.
Here are some of the lessons we learnt from the Mercy Campaign.
Empathy is crucial
Sukumaran, Chan and their families were leading the news bulletins for more
than 50 days from the end of 2014 to their deaths in April 2015. The more we
heard their story - about the work they were doing in prison, about the
community they built in Kerobokan, about their rehabilitation - the more
difficult it was to cold-heartedly dismiss their plight.
Many people commenting on the Mercy Campaign Facebook page would often say, "I
feel like I know them."
The media has power
There was little empathy for Sukumaran and Chan in the early days of their
incarceration when News Corp media assigned them cartoonish monikers of the
Enforcer and the Kingpin. That proved a hard perception to shake. When
journalist Mark Davis gained access to Kerobokan he asked them about this tag.
They both burst out laughing at the absurdity of it.
What drug kingpin drives a second hand car and lives with his parents, asked
Andrew.
In the end, Chan and Sukumaran's executions stung Indonesia's economy, not its
conscience
Sukumaran told The Monthly: "I'm still looking for my 'green Mercedes' and my
'many girlfriends'."
Yet coverage of Myuran and Andrew in News Corp papers shifted markedly in the
final years of their lives. The Courier-Mail published a powerful editorial in
January 2015 denouncing the executions and The Australian ran a compelling
front page with every living prime minister pleading with the Indonesian
president for mercy. News Corp's stance had well and truly softened and public
opinion followed. By the end of their lives, some of the most compassionate
pieces of journalism about Sukumaran and Chan were written by News Corp
journalists.
The clemency movement is diverse
The Catholic church has had a long and noble tradition in this country in
taking the lead in activism on death penalty cases, from Ronald Ryan to Van
Nguyen. This time, while there was support from institutions such as the
Australian Catholic University and regular vigils at churches in Melbourne,
other groups and individuals from vastly different spheres stepped up and
became very powerful advocates for clemency.
Supporters for clemency included the artist Ben Quilty, musicians such as
Temper Trap and the Presets, broadcaster Alan Jones, the legal community -
particularly in Melbourne - some unions, and clergy from a variety of faiths,
including Christian and Muslim.
It was an incredible coalition of people from both the left and right, and
everything in between. The apolitical nature of the campaign and this diversity
and made the movement for clemency inclusive and stronger.
Politicians showed leadership - and that matters
There are so many pressing social issues - such as treatment of asylum seekers
- where there is no leadership from the ruling party, and also no dissent from
the opposition. Yet last year, support for clemency was bi-partisan, sending a
strong message that Australia does not support the death penalty, either here
or abroad.
A year on, and now our politicians - indeed all of us that deplored the
executions in Indonesia - need to keep fighting to ensure that it doesn't
happen again.
(source: Opinion, Brigid Delaney (Brigid Delaney was a co-founder of the Mercy
Campaign); The Guardian)
**********************
Indonesia executions 1 year on: Mary Jane lives but death penalty questions
linge----It has been 1 year since Filipina Mary Jane's reprieve and the
execution of 8 others. What's the situation now?
The anguished cry of a sister about to lose her brother, dust clouds kicked up
by dozens of reporters and police, and the heavy sensation of dread.
These stand out in my memory of April 28 last year, the day before Indonesia
executed 8 people on Nusakambangan, Central Java, for drug offenses.
Incongruous in the chaos were 2 little boys, Mark Darren and Mark Daniel, the
sons of Filipina Mary Jane Veloso.
Aged 6 and 12, they were told to say their last goodbyes to their mother before
she "went to heaven."
That night, Veloso, 30, was taken from her cell and was walking to the firing
squad when she was pulled back, granted a temporary reprieve.
In a dramatic turn, the woman who allegedly recruited Veloso had surrendered to
police. The single mother had always argued she was duped into carrying 2.6kg
of heroin into Indonesia in 2009.
Shots heard after midnight signaled the firing squad had done its grim work.
But at Cilacap port, we were in the dark about Veloso's fate.
I sent a text message to her attorney. I've heard a rumor. Is Mary Jane alive?
Edre Olalia's ecstatic reply came: "YES!!!!!"
Recruiters on trial
Maria Cristina Sergio and Julis Lacanilao, the couple accused of setting up
Veloso, are finally on trial after protracted pre-trial legal arguments.
Olalia says this case and others expose the great danger that innocent people
will be executed because of errors.
Criminal justice systems everywhere are imperfect, he says. They are
complicated, confusing and corruptible.
"In countries that impose the death penalty, we know as a fact there can be
mistakes," he says.
"We know also the system is very prejudiced against those who have no power,
who have no influence or wealth."
Veloso will have the chance to tell her story at this trial. At her 2010 trial
in Indonesia, she was not provided a qualified translator.
Discussions between Manila and Jakarta continue to determine how her testimony
will be presented.
The death penalty was abolished in the Philippines in 1986, reintroduced in
1993 and suspended again in 2006.
2 presidential candidates - Rodrigo Duterte and Grace Poe, are in favor of
returning capital punishment.
Olalia says this is a populist stance that ignores policy approaches that
actually work.
However, looking at the root causes of criminality and strengthening
investigative bodies don't grab headlines.
"Crimes must be punished and people must be held accountable, but we will not
solve a problem by presenting another problem," he says.
Indonesia's stance
Indonesia argues its death penalty is not only for those who commit the most
serious crimes - drug trafficking, terrorism, murder and treason - but as a
warning to future perpetrators.
However there's still no evidence the death penalty deters drug crime.
Lawyer Ricky Gunawan has just returned from the UN General Assembly Special
Session on drugs, where he gave an impassioned plea to end the death penalty.
"We are going nowhere with drug policy," he says. "Indonesia is still using the
old punitive measures which have not resulted in any positive difference."
Gunawan, of LBH Masyarakat (Community Legal Aid Institute), says the annual
report of the BNN (National Narcotics Agency) itself shows the continued rise
of drug crimes.
But instead of changing tactics, BNN chief Budi Waseso wants more regular
executions.
On April 7, 10 foreign drug convicts' names were reported in the media,
supposedly the next candidates for executions.
Attorney General HM Prasetyo was quoted as saying he was only waiting for their
final legal appeals and better weather.
His spokesman later told Australia's ABC he was only joking.
Eventually, Indonesia's lawmakers will debate a revision of the criminal code
that would see a death sentence commuted to life or 20 years' jail after 10
years of good behavior.
"This would be good because we know many death row prisoners, after 10 years'
imprisonment, show change," Gunawan says.
"It's difficult, politically, to see Indonesia abolishing the death penalty
now, but this would be a good compromise."
Chan and Sukumaran
The story of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran rallied the support of many
Australians.
Chan had transformed from Bali 9 drug smuggler to pastor within 10 years, while
Sukumaran dedicated himself to becoming an accomplished painter.
After legal, diplomatic and community appeals failed to save the reformed pair
from execution, many questioned whether Australia shouldn???t be a more
consistent and louder voice against the death penalty worldwide.
A parliamentary committee has been considering how Australia's government can
improve its advocacy.
Julian McMahon, who was a lawyer for Chan and Sukumaran, now serves as
president for Reprieve Australia.
"The Chan-Sukumaran case asked not only the public, but also the Australian
parliament, to take a firm position on the death penalty," he says.
"Opposition to more executions anywhere is the only acceptable position for a
government.
"In my opinion, they're doing it well now. Having said that, there's obviously
a lot more to be done.
"A number of nations who are great friends of Australia have taken backward
steps in recent weeks."
Not only is Indonesia openly discussing more executions, but Japan and Malaysia
have conducted secretive executions. Death penalty Malaysia is moving towards
reform of its mandatory death penalty for some drug crimes, with proposed
amendments anticipated to be introduced to parliament in May. But last month it
sent 3 men to the gallows, giving their families only 2 days' notice the
decade-old sentence for murder would be carried out.
Meanwhile, a Malaysian man is set to be hung in Singapore, after his final
appeal was quashed.
Kho Jabing was sentenced to death in 2010 for killing a Chinese worker in a
robbery.
There have been talks between the 2 governments concerning the 31-year-old, but
Malaysia finds itself in the difficult position of asking for its citizen to be
spared death while its own justice system executes.
Amnesty International reports 2015 was the worst year in a quarter of a century
for the death penalty.
At least 1,634 people were put to death last year, 90 % of them in 3 countries:
Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
The figures exclude China, where it's believed thousands are executed each year
in secret.
Amnesty International Malaysia's Shamini Darshni says the rational arguments
against the death penalty endure.
"The death penalty is a very emotional argument but we have so much research to
show it doesn't actually prevent crimes, prevent future crimes or help the
crime rate, and it robs a prisoner of the chance for rehabilitation," she says.
--
The 8 people executed on April 29, 2015
Andrew Chan, Australia - a member of the Bali 9 drug smugglers. In his decade
of imprisonment he became a pastor and helped many fellow inmates through
counselling.
Myuran Sukumaran, Australia - dubbed a ringleader of the Bali 9 along with
Chan, he became an accomplished painter behind bars and helped inmates find
purpose and skills through art programs.
Rodrigo Gularte, Brazil - executed despite being twice diagnosed with
schizophrenia. Arrested at Jakarta airport in 2004 with 6kg of cocaine, Gularte
did not understand he was going to be executed until the final moments.
Martin Anderson, Nigeria - arrested in Jakarta in 2003 for possessing about 1.8
ounces of heroin. Police shot him in the leg during his arrest and the injury
troubled him for his remaining years.
Okwuduli Oyatanze, Nigeria - sentenced to death in 2002 for attempting to bring
2.5kg of heroin through Jakarta in capsules inside his stomach. He was a gospel
singer whose deep Christian faith touched many who met him.
Raheem Salami, Nigeria - was homeless in Bangkok when he was offered $400 to
take a package of clothes to Indonesia. He was arrested in Surabaya with 5.5kg
of heroin and originally sentenced to life in prison in 1999.
Silvester Obiekwe Nwolise, Nigeria - convicted in 2002 of smuggling just over a
kilogram of heroin into Indonesia. He was lured to Pakistan with the promise of
work, but instead offered the task of flying to Indonesia with what he thought
were capsules of goat horn powder.
Zainal Abidin, Indonesia - A laborer from Palembang, Abidin was transferred for
execution despite having a live judicial appeal. 2 men convicted with Abidin,
who he claimed were the masterminds of a plot to sell marijuana, served prison
sentences and were released.
(source: rappler.com)
**********************
Brits facing death by firing squad in Indonesia could be executed 'within
weeks'----Lindsay Sandiford and Gareth Cashmore have been sentenced to death by
firing squad
2 Brits are among those thought to be executed in Indonesia by firing squad
'within weeks' - a year after the country caused international outrage after
killing 8 men.
Foreigners on death row in Indonesia fear that the execution of their sentences
could be just weeks away, The Guardian reports.
Last April, the country was widely condemned after a group of prisoners was
executed after midnight on Nusakambangan Island - including Australian men
Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, Brazilian Rodrigo Gularte, Nigerian men
Martin Anderson, Sylvester Nwolise, Okwudili Oyatanze and Raheem Salami, and
Indonesian Zainal Badarudin.
Officials said the prisoners were to be given the choice to stand, kneel or sit
before the firing squad, and to be blindfolded. Their hands and feet were to be
tied.
Another round of executions has been on hold since then.
But Brits Lindsay Sandiford, from Teeside, and Gareth Cashmore, from Yorkshire,
are among those now facing death after being convicted of drug smuggling.
No official date or list of the prisoners facing death by firing squad has yet
been released by Indonesia.
"I still don't want to believe it," lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis - who last year
was fighting to save Chan and Sukumaran - told The Guardian.
"Yes, there will probably be a statement, but in the end I don't think there
will be any executions. I refuse to believe it."
According to Amnesty International, 27 people were executed in Indonesia
between 1999 and 2014, with no executions carried out between 2009 and 2012.
The organisation has said there were at least 121 people on death row as of
April 2015, including 54 people convicted of drug-related crimes, 2 on
terrorism charges and 65 convicted of murder.
(source: The Independent)
****************************
Lawyer condemns move
A Myrtleford lawyer who acted for Bali drug smugglers Andrew Chan and Myuran
Sukumaran has expressed her disgust at the impending resumption of executions.
Veronica Haccou said she was "very, very concerned" that Indonesia was planning
to kill 14 prisoners at once.
Speaking on the eve of the 12-month anniversary of the pair's execution, Haccou
said she accepted the death penalty was a "very contested topic".
"But at the end of the day if we say that no one has the right to take another
person's life, then especially where the justice system is far from perfect
then there must be other ways to impose appropriate punishment."
Ms Haccou is continuing to fight for the abolition of the death penalty as a
board member of Reprieve Australia.
Chan, 31, and Sukumaran, 34, were shot dead on the prison island of
Nusakambangan, along with 6 other prisoners, on April 29, 2015.
Ms Haccou helped them for 8 years alongside notable Melbourne human rights
lawyer Julian McMahon.
Ms Haccou said education played a key role in trying to abolish the death
penalty, especially through helping young Indonesians understand their
country???s obligations under international law.
"12 months ago on Anzac Day was the date the death warrants were read out to
both of the boys," she said.
"They were very dignified, very polite, but also they were there to tell the
truth in terms of they didn't agree the punishment was appropriate given how
they had been rehabilitated."
While the anniversary was a "very, very, very tough period of time" this did
not mean "we don't respect the families of victims of drug crimes. Of course we
do.
"But we are talking about 2 young men who made a really, really bad mistake
when they were 21 and 24," she said.
"They were in prison for 10 years and during that time they went ahead in leaps
and bounds.
"They had turned themselves from being criminals - there's no other way of
saying it - to rehabilitated young men who made a difference to others around
them."
(source: The Border Mail)
*******************
Prisoners on death row in Indonesia could be saved under proposed law
change----Death row prisoners in Indonesia may in the future have an avenue for
a reprieve.
A groundbreaking new penal code that would allow for prisoners on death row in
Indonesia to have their sentences commuted to a jail term could be passed as
early as next year, according to the country's justice minister.
This could save the lives of some of the estimated 180 people sentenced to
death in Indonesia - if they could demonstrate they had reformed after 10 years
behind bars.
Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly told Fairfax Media he hoped the new
draft of the criminal code would be passed by Parliament next year.
"Under the revision of the penal code we are doing now, we want the death
penalty to still be there, but it can be changed, commuted," Mr Yasonna said.
"If possible we would like to finish it up next year. The progress looks good."
Mr Yasonna's comments come on the eve of the 1st anniversary of the execution
of 8 drug offenders, including Bali 9 co-ordinators Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew
Chan.
President Joko Widodo refused to grant the Australians clemency, despite their
well-documented reform and rehabilitation, including Chan becoming a pastor and
Sukumaran establishing art and computer classes for inmates at Bali's Kerobokan
jail.
After a year-long break from executions - which government ministers attributed
to the weak economy - prison authorities have been ordered to prepare for a
fresh round on Nusakambangan, known as Indonesia's Alcatraz.
The timing of the executions and the names and nationalities of those who will
face the firing squad have not yet been disclosed.
However Fairfax Media has been told they are likely to be Indonesians after the
international outcry following the 2 rounds of executions last year, when 12 of
the 14 killed were foreigners.
Chief Security Minister Luhut Panjaitan said Indonesia wanted to avoid the
"soap opera" surrounding last year's executions.
He said this time only 3 days' notice of the timing would be given, as
stipulated under Indonesian law.
Last year's April 29 executions became a circus, with Chan and Sukumaran flown
to the island where they were executed accompanied by 2 Sukhoi fighter jets.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said at the time she couldn't comprehend the
dramatic display of military might, given the pair had never done anything to
suggest they were violent.
Chan and Sukumaran's Indonesian lawyer, Todung Mulya Lubis, told Fairfax Media
the international pressure could not be underestimated.
He said a draft of the revised penal code, which included the option to commute
the death penalty, had been submitted to Parliament late last year.
"I think the government expedited the submission of this draft criminal code
partly because of the death penalty protest," Dr Todung said.
"They want to find a way to answer the criticism of the human rights community.
I think Andrew and Myuran contributed to the expedition of the whole process."
However Dr Todung pointed out the low success rate in Parliament passing bills
and said he believed it would take Parliament more than a year to deliberate
the draft criminal code.
Putri Kanesia, from Jakarta-based human rights organisation Kontras, said she
was pessimistic about the new penal code, given it had been in the pipeline for
many years.
In 2007, the Indonesian Constitutional Court upheld the validity of the death
penalty, but also recommended that a death-row prisoner who showed
rehabilitation after 10 years have their sentence commuted to imprisonment.
The Indonesian President, Mr Joko, again defended the death penalty during a
visit to Europe this month, saying Indonesia was at an emergency level in the
war against drugs.
Mr Joko's "position on death for drugs is a genuine one" but also boosts his
political popularity, says Tim Lindsey, director of Indonesian law, Islam and
Society at the University of Melbourne's Law School.
Certainly, the legal team for Chan and Sukumaran saw Mr Joko's stance as
pivotal to their failure to succeed in the final weeks of their lives to get
Indonesia's Judicial Commission to investigate claims by the duo's former
lawyer, Mohammad Rifan, that judges and prosecutors asked for bribes to commute
their death sentence to 20 years during their 1st trial.
The commission, a nominally independent body that examines the probity of
judges, refused to summon the Bali 9 pair for interviews even though they were
key witnesses to the bribery and had provided statements.
"They admitted it would be really, really hard for them to be interviewed,"
said one senior member of the Indonesian legal team. "They said the President,
the executive, the lawmakers were united in performing the executions. They
essentially said it was too bad."
Right up until just hours before their execution, lawyers, eminent Indonesians,
diplomats and others were beseeching the chair of the Judicial Commission,
Marzuki Supraman, to intervene, to no avail.
"While there are many in civil society and government who oppose executions -
even in cabinet - many law enforcement officials, with an eye to promotion,
appointment, extension of tenure, now seem reluctant to take a stand against
the President's position," said Professor Lindsey.
"Many think this explains the Judicial Commission's shameful reluctance to call
on the government to halt the executions of Sukumaran and Chan, at least until
they had a chance to give evidence about the allegations of corruption by
judges in their original trial - allegations that, if proven, might well have
led to them avoiding the firing squad."
***********************
Threat to Bali 9's Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran's legacy upsets families
As the families of Bali nine duo Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran? struggle
with the anniversary of their execution, news that 2 Iranian inmates entrusted
with their legacy have been suddenly shifted from Kerobokan prison has added to
their anguish.
Ali Reza Safar Khanloo? and Rouhallah Series Abadi? were among 63 prisoners
moved this week from the Bali prison that was home to Chan and Sukumaran for
more than a decade, part of a cohort judged to be "emotionally easy to provoke
and who caused disturbances".
"It's pretty upsetting," said Andrew Chan's brother Michael. "Knowing those 2
Iranian boys are going ... there, pretty much, goes the painting studio and
BengKer [workshop] as well."
The workshop, housed in an building that had previously been used by inmates to
manufacture the drug ecstasy, has long been at the heart of the Bali nine
pair's rehabilitation programs.
Used initially to conduct computer training classes, the space later morphed
into an art and craft studio, with inmates undertaking painting, jewellery
making and T-shirt printing.
Ali and Rouhallah, also known as Rahol, oversaw the facility after the death of
the Australians.
Chan and Sukumaran were killed in the early hours of April 29 last year.
Michael Chan says the emotions are raw. "This week has been tough," he says.
The family will mark the anniversary on Friday with a quiet "get-together" at
their Sydney home. Andrew Chan's wife Febyanti Herewila - they married on the
eve of the execution - has flown in for the occasion.
Like Michael Chan, she is disturbed that Indonesia has announced it will end a
moratorium on executions since the pair were killed alongside 6 other drug
traffickers a year ago.
"What is Andrew's legacy? Of course, the 1st one is to abolish the death
penalty," she said in comments posted on the website of Reprieve, an anti-death
penalty group.
"Andrew wants the young people from around the world to learn from his life,
Whatever decisions you make today will determine your future."
Andrew Chan was an obsessive rugby league supporter and devoted fan of the
Penrith Panthers.
Now the season is in full swing, his brother - a Canterbury Bulldogs fan - says
his absence has hit home.
"I miss the good old banter we used to have," he says. "This time of year, he'd
be telling me how good his team is. I'd be telling him how shit his team is."
The Sukumaran clan remains deeply wounded by the loss of Myuran and, according
to family friends distressed at the precarious future of the Kerobokan
workshop.
A church service will be held for Myuran Sukumaran on Saturday.
Next year an exhibition of his artwork, curated by his painting mentor Ben
Quilty, will be held.
(source for both: Sydney Morning Herald)
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