'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)