Govt told to set deadline for executions

Govt told to set deadline for executions

Abdul Khalik and Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Legal experts urged the government on Sunday to impose a deadline
for the execution of convicts sentenced to death to avoid double
punishment.

Meanwhile, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who is almost certain to
be named president on Oct. 5, said Indonesia's legal system
should maintain capital punishment in dealing with extraordinary
crimes, saying such punishment would provide justice.

Noted lawyer and human rights activist Luhut M. Pangaribuan
said authorities should give priority to appeals filed by
convicts sentenced to death and execute them within a year of
sentencing, if they have exhausted all other legal avenues
available.

"Aside from controversy over the existence of capital
punishment itself, it should be a main priority for the judiciary
to carry out the death sentence in less than a year after the
verdict. The authorities can do that if they want to," said
Luhut.

Two Thai nationals -- Namsong Sirilak, 32, and Saelow Prasert,
62 -- were executed in the early hours of Friday, more than eight
years after they were sentenced to death in 1996 for drug
trafficking.

Sirilak and Prasert, along with Indian national, Ayodhya
Prasadh Chaubey, were arrested in 1994, for carrying 12 kilograms
of heroin. Chaubey was executed in August this year.

The long delay in their execution has raised concerns that the
three were serving two sentences -- death and imprisonment.

Over 20 other convicts are still on death row. Three of them
have been imprisoned for 12 years while two others have been in
prison since 1993 and 1994 respectively. The authorities have
given no clues as to when they would be executed.

According to existing laws, convicts on death row may appeal
to a higher court, and ask for sentence review from the Supreme
Court. If the courts reject their pleas, they can request a
presidential clemency twice.

Death-row convicts whose pleas for clemency have been rejected
are Samuel Iwuchekwu Okoye, 34, Hansen Anthony Nwaolisa, 37, both
from Nigeria, Indra Bahadur Tamang, 24, from Nepal, Muhammad
Abdul Hafez, 36, from Pakistan and Namaona Denis, 39, from
Malawi.

Three other drug traffickers are also facing execution after
their pleas for clemency were turned down last year. They are all
Indonesian -- Deni Setia Maharwan, Meirika Franola and Rani
Andriani.

Luhut criticized the judicial authorities for their tardiness
in deciding the fate of convicts on death row, saying that in
most cases authorities seemed to ignore pleas for clemency.

Rudy Satrio, a criminal law expert from the School of Law at
the University of Indonesia, acknowledged loopholes in the
country's legal system concerning the maximum period death-row
convicts had to wait for their execution.

"We have no law regulating when convicts must be executed.
That's why we have proposed in the draft bill on legal procedures
that the state change capital punishment to life if a convict is
not executed within 10 years," said Rudy.

He said if the bill was approved by the House next year
practically no more executions were expected as long as the
convict showed a willingness to change his or her attitude.

Meanwhile, Susilo said over the weekend that cases that carry
capital punishment must be done in a fair, transparent and
accountable manner.

"In the case of certain crimes that hurt people's sense of
justice, I think capital punishment is one among numerous
sentences that should be considered by judges. In many countries,
such a punishment works well as a deterrent," he said.