'Courts can sentence rapists to death'

'Courts can sentence rapists to death'

JAKARTA (JP): Justice Bismar Siregar says ordinary courts can
sentence rapists to death by applying Islamic law, even though
the Indonesian criminal code prescribes a maximum penalty of only
12 years imprisonment for the crime.

The justice, who is often noted for his controversial ideas,
said yesterday that the Indonesian legal system recognizes
religious injunctions as one of its chief sources of law.

Given that Islam prescribes capital punishment for rapists,
judges in ordinary courts could use Islamic law to pass the death
sentence on men convicted of rape, he told Antara.

"The spirit of religion should inspire the formal laws, and
this is also recognized by (the state ideology) Pancasila as the
source of all laws," he said.

Bismar was one of several prominent figures who have suggested
that the youths who gang-raped a woman and her two teenage
daughters in Bekasi last month be sentenced to death.

Eleven young men are currently in police custody charged with
perpetrating the crime. Their trial was delayed because of a pre-
trial suit filed by their lawyers against the police for false
arrest. That suit was dropped after the defense lawyers were
beaten by a mob at the court.

According to Bismar, the principles of all religious laws
could be applied in ordinary courts of law because all verdicts
are preceded by the sentence "in the name of justice and God
Almighty." This, he added, meant that religious principles are
taken into consideration in reaching the verdict.

While Islam does not specifically state that rapists should be
sentenced to death, Bismar pointed out that in Islamic teachings
"even adultery is punishable by death."

He said that he did not mean that Islamic law should be used
nationally in judging crimes. "The point is that religious
principles inspire our formal laws," he said.

Bismar lamented the fact that very few judges in Indonesia
have taken religious laws into consideration in reaching their
verdicts.

They do not feel obliged to use them as the sources of the
laws, he said. "I guess it's not easy, because it depends on the
conscience of each judge."

During his days as a sitting judge, Bismar often applied
religious laws, both Islamic and Christian, depending on the
religion of the person being tried, he said.

"Christian people in Indonesia should not feel apprehension
because Islam does not require that non-Moslems must be tried
under Islamic laws, even though the judge may be a Moslem," he
said. (emb)