Court review on rejected clemency bid allowed

JAKARTA (JP): Chief Justice Soerjono is supporting a bid to allow a court to review the case of three prisoners convicted to death in East Java, whose clemency plea has been rejected by the government.

Soerjono said there is no law forbidding a convict who has exhausted all clemency efforts from requesting a court review.

"Every convict on death row has the right to apply for presidential clemency. He/she can also ask the Supreme Court to review the case," Soerjono confirmed.

He said that the laws on presidential clemency and on court review do not prohibit convicts from making such last-ditch efforts.

Soerjono was commenting on the case of Police First Sergeant Djais Adi Prayitno, his wife Sumiarsih and their son Sugeng, whose request for clemency has been turned down by the President.

The Surabaya District Court in East Java is currently reviewing their case as requested by their lawyers. The three were convicted of murdering Lt. Col. Purwanto and four members of his family in 1989.

Their lawyers claim that preliminary trials of the case were unlawful. They said that law enforcers were also involved in the murder.

"In this interconnected case, the trial should have involved both civil and military judges," Soetedja Djajasasmita, one of the convicts' lawyers, once said.

Djais, Sumiarsih and Sugeng were convicted of premeditated murder, which was apparently carried out because they owed the policeman and his family members Rp 37 million (US$16,364).

The Surabaya district court was informed of the President's rejection on July 24, which was then passed on to the Prosecutor's Office.

Second Sergeant Adi Saputro, another convict and Prayitno's son-in-law, has already been executed. (imn)