Clemency granted to political prisoners<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto has granted clemency to three
\npolitical prisoners linked with the abortive 1965 communist coup,
\nthe government announced yesterday.<\/p>\n
Under the clemency, Soebandrio, Omar Dhani and Raden Soegeng
\nSoetarto will go free on Aug. 15, just two days before Indonesia
\nmarks its 50th Independence Day.<\/p>\n
Minister\/State Secretary Moerdiono, who made the announcement
\nat his office, told reporters that the President took various
\nhumanitarian and political questions into consideration before
\ngranting the requests for clemency, which were submitted by the
\nwives of the three convicts.<\/p>\n
\"The clemency granted by the President to the convicts reduced
\ntheir sentences from life imprisonment to temporary jail terms
\nuntil Aug. 15,\" he said. \"They will be free after Aug. 15.\"<\/p>\n
Granting convicts clemency is the constitutional prerogative
\nof the president.<\/p>\n
The presidential decrees for the clemency of the three were
\nsigned on June 2, before the military and some senior politicians
\nwarned that releasing political prisoners convicted for the 1965
\ncoup would raise the specter of a communist revival.<\/p>\n
Moerdiono said the President had been considering the issue
\nsince the first requests for clemency came to him two years ago.
\n\"Hence we can see that the President needed quite a long time
\nbefore reaching his decision.<\/p>\n
\"The decision required careful thinking,\" Moerdiono said.<\/p>\n
\"There is the legal aspect, because the President is bound by
\nthe laws and the Constitution.<\/p>\n
\"There is the political aspect because the three had roles
\nthat led to the national tragedy in the G30S\/PKI rebellion in
\n1965.<\/p>\n
\"There is also the humanitarian aspect because the three
\nconvicts are already aged,\" Moerdiono explained.<\/p>\n
\"From a humanitarian perspective, the President also took into
\nconsideration the reports that while serving their term, the
\nthree convicts showed changes in attitude and conduct.<\/p>\n
\"Soetarto's health, for example, has been deteriorating.<\/p>\n
\"So taking humanitarian aspects into consideration, hopefully
\nthey (the convicts) can spend the rest of their lives with their
\nfamilies,\" Moerdiono said.<\/p>\n
Soebandrio, 81, is a former deputy prime minister; Omar Dhani,
\n71, is an air marshal and former air force chief of staff; and
\nSoetarto, 77, is a police general who served in the Center for
\nIntelligence Agency. All were convicted for their roles in the
\nSept. 30, 1965 putsch that has been blamed on the Indonesian
\nCommunist Party (PKI). G30S\/PKI has since been used as the
\nofficial shorthand to refer to the putsch. The PKI was outlawed
\nin 1966.<\/p>\n
The three men were originally convicted to death for their
\nparts in the coup against then President Sukarno. In the early
\n1980s, President Soeharto granted them clemency, commuting their
\nsentences to life imprisonment.<\/p>\n
Soebandrio and Omar Dhani are currently in a special high
\nsecurity block at the Cipinang correctional institution in East
\nJakarta. Soetarto has been a patient at the St. Carolus private
\nhospital since May 1994, suffering from severe depression.<\/p>\n
Moerdiono said that the requests for clemency came from their
\nwives, \"with the consent\" of their husbands.<\/p>\n
The clemency was only given with regard to the court's
\nsentence, and not for the crime they committed.<\/p>\n
\"So even if we have commuted their sentences, and they are
\nfree, this does not erase the errors they committed. This has to
\nbe widely understood by the people.\"<\/p>\n
The suggestions that the government release political
\nprisoners in a gesture of reconciliation and as part of the
\ncountry's golden anniversary first surfaced early this year.<\/p>\n
In May, the government disclosed that three political
\nprisoners had applied for clemency: Soebandrio, Omar Dhani and A.
\nLatief, an Army officer who was also involved in the putsch.<\/p>\n
Asked about the fate of Latief, Moerdiono simply answered that
\nclemency is the full prerogative of the President.<\/p>\n
\"I could add that Soebandrio, Omar Dhani and Soetarto were not
\nPKI.<\/p>\n
\"The court trying them was clear on their crime,\" Moerdiono
\nsaid, citing the court record which stated that: \"They were
\nconsidered to have attempted or tried to facilitate others, an
\nendeavor and opportunity to rebel with the intention of toppling
\nthe legal government.\"<\/p>\n
Responding to a question, Moerdiono affirmed that 10 other
\npolitical prisoners had applied for clemency. They were Maliki
\nbin Haji Yusuf, Raden Sembodo, Soedono, Ahmad Dahlan Gani, Ulung
\nSitepu, Johan Rivai, Usep Rashidi, Sugeng Sugiarto, Sudirman and
\nMarkus Murad.<\/p>\n
Asked if the prison conduct of the three clemency recipients
\nwas sufficient an indication that they will not indulge in
\npolitical activities, Moerdiono said: \"We all hope so.\" (emb)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/clemency-granted-to-political-prisoners-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}