Scholars, police call for review of execution process

Scholars, police call for review of execution process

JAKARTA (JP): Although the date of execution for 35-year-old murderer Karta Cahyadi, alias Yongki, has not yet been made public, scholars and senior police officers have suggested the execution be opened to the public as an effective general deterrent.

"It's better to allow the public and the press, except children, to watch the execution process in order to effectively meet the main aim of the penalty, which is to remind people about harsh punishment," Supreme Court Justice Bismar Siregar told The Jakarta Post yesterday.

According to Bismar, the current rule which only allows limited observers, such as prosecutors, police officers and medical personnel, at an execution has no direct impact on the public.

"Islam teaching also recommends the public witness the imminent execution of a convicted person, like in many Arabic countries," Bismar said.

Professor Muladi, rector of the University of Diponegoro in Semarang, Central Jakarta, and former deputy police chief for operational affairs, Maj. Gen. (ret.) Koesparmono Irsan share Bismar's view. Each were contacted at a seminar on organized crime at the Police Sciences College here.

"An execution could be, for example, attended by the convicted person's relatives and the public, including journalists," said Muladi, who is also a member of the government-sponsored National Committee for Human Rights.

By allowing witnesses, the real target of capital punishment, that is, deterring the committing of heinous crimes, could be met effectively.

"Based on the current rule, only few police officers who carry out the execution could feel and describe the situation of the punishment," Muladi said. "It gives no significant and direct message to the public," he said.

According to Koesparmono the strict rule for witnesses at an execution could be reviewed.

"There is nothing wrong with it as long as the criminal has accepted the punishment," Koesparmono said.

Yongki, a resident of Jakarta, was sentenced to death by the district court in Surakarta, Central Java, in 1990 for the brutal murder of three people in a house which he was robbing.

The house Yongki robbed belonged to Utomo Kasidi, a distant relative of his. The three victims were Utomo's 11-year old son Danny, Utomo's 40-year-old brother Sasongko Suryo, and a 23-year old housemaid, Lasiyem.

The government has agreed to Yongki's request that he be executed in Jakarta.

Head of the Jakarta Prosecutor's Office Soejoto said yesterday, "There is a possibility that Yongki is to be executed on Friday."

Soejoto told reporters after holding an internal meeting in his office that according to some Christians' belief, those who die on the same day of the death of Jesus Christ will have blessings. This year the death of Jesus Christ will be commemorated tomorrow.

Soejoto, however, declined to mention the exact date of execution.

Yongki's accomplice, Tugiman, also received the death sentence and is still waiting for a reply from the president to his request for clemency.

The convicted men made off with valuables they had found in the house, including Utomo's car. The total loot was estimated to have been worth about Rp 40 million (US$18,000).

Yongki has exhausted all legal channels for a possible reprieve. His last resort, an appeal for presidential clemency, was turned down on March 27.

Indonesia has already executed two men this year. The first was a Malaysian who was convicted of drug trafficking in Jakarta, and the second was a retired Army sergeant who was convicted for murdering an entire family in North Sulawesi in 1985.

Both of them were executed by an elite Brimob police firing squad. (bsr/imn)