21 drug traffickers sentenced to death, none executed
Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post, Tangerang
Since Laws No. 22/1997 on narcotics and 5/1997 on psychotropic substances, which stipulate as maximum penalties the death sentence, took effect in the country, the Tangerang District Court has made the most of the legislation to mete out capital punishment.
In the last case, the court handed down on Monday the death penalty to Ang Kiem Soei, a Dutch passport holder who owned two ecstasy factories in Tangerang.
Besides Ang Kiem Soei, 20 other people, mostly foreigners, received the death sentence after January 2000 for smuggling drugs into the country. Another was sentenced to life.
Six are women.
None of the convicts, however, has been executed.
"The carrying out of the death penalty is not simple but a long process that requires at least five years until it can be implemented," Tangerang District Court chief M. Hatta Ali said.
Even though the district court may have sentenced a defendant to death, he or she may appeal to the high court, and later to the Supreme Court.
In five cases, the West Java High Court reduced death sentences to life sentences. The Supreme Court commuted one death sentence to a 15-year jail term.
On the other hand, the court of appeal may also impose a more severe sentence, as happened to a Malawian who received a life sentence from the district court. He appealed but the High Court imposed the death penalty.
The reason why defendants or convicts receive different sentences is that it all depends on the judges.
"We, the judges, can't say we are disappointed, even though the High Court or the Supreme Court may reduce the maximum penalty we have already imposed, because they have their own authority to do so," Hatta told The Jakarta Post in a recent interview.
He said the Supreme Court probably regarded life imprisonment or a 15-year jail term as the fairest punishment, even though judges at the Tangerang District Court considered the death penalty the most suitable punishment for drug smugglers.
Even though the Supreme Court has handed down the ruling, this does not mean that the process has ended. Convicts may still ask the Supreme Court to review the case, and then request a presidential pardon, as stipulated in Law No.3/1950 on clemency request.
According to Hatta, the law even states that a defendant may file a request for a pardon request to the president more than once, should the president reject the request.
He said if a defendant remained sentenced to death after the Supreme Court had reviewed the case and did not file a clemency request to the president, the district court judges, who had earlier handed down the death penalty, and the court chief were obliged to file a clemency request to the president on behalf of the defendant based on Supreme Court Decree No. 1/1986.
Hatta said that to control defendants who were on death row, and to make sure that they were still at the penitentiary, the court had a team of judges whose task was to monitor their presence there. The team consisted of five judges, who were replaced once every six months.
Implementation of the death penalty, as stipulated in Emergency Law No 12/1955, should be witnessed by prosecutors, while a platoon of police officers will act as the firing squad.
When quizzed on the death penalty, Tangerang prosecutor's office chief Himawan Kaskawa refused to comment any further on the matter.