Government, House approve of Presidential pardon bill

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Legislators and the government on Thursday ended deliberation on the amendment of Law No. 3/1950 on Presidential Pardons with a new stipulation that enables a convict to seek a pardon and appeal all at once, but the appeal will be processed first.

The approved bill states that the president cannot pardon a convict before the Supreme Court (MA) hands down a verdict in an appeal.

Minister of Justice and Human Rights Yusril Ihza Mahendra hailed the legislators' approval, saying that it was a revolutionary step to enforce a better law.

"The president can only give a pardon three months after the ruling from the Supreme Court," Yusril told the press after signing the final draft law.

The final draft is slated for endorsement next Friday in a plenary House session.

Article 3 of the bill says that the request for a presidential pardon will not suspend the execution of a sentence, except for the death sentence.

The bill also states that a pardon can be sought twice with the second request only being allowed two years after the first is rejected.

Only convicts with a minimum sentence of two years are allowed to request a pardon, the bill says.

Earlier in the day, legislators debated whether the rulings on a request for presidential pardon and appeal to the Supreme Court would be included on the bill.

Akil Mochtar of Golkar said both legal actions had different impacts. He said that a pardon was leniency in respect of a sentence while an appeal could overrule a sentence.

He suggested that the rulings on that matter should be dropped from the bill and instead the legal process should be relied upon.

Former president Soeharto's son Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra was a good example of these problems. He requested a pardon from then president Abdurrahman Wahid and appealed to the Supreme Court (MA) at the same time over the 18-month sentence for his role in the land swap involving the State Logistics Agency (Bulog).

The legal action brought by Tommy was aimed at suspending the execution of the sentence.

"People used to take advantage of the pardon request to suspend the execution, but under the new law, this will not happen," Yusril said.