Woman barred from leaving jail

JAKARTA (JP): A migrant worker, jailed for abandoning her newborn in a Garuda Indonesia aircraft toilet won a reduction of her sentence, but is still being held in prison, two weeks after her prison sentence ended.

Tangerang's penitentiary for female inmates on Friday refused to release Imas, 27, a native of Cianjur, West Java, saying it had not received a copy of the ruling issued by the West Java High Court that Imas' jail term had been reduced from 10 to seven months.

According to Imas' lawyers, the West Java High Court issued the ruling on May 28, but a copy of the ruling was only received by the lawyers on June 12.

The lawyers, from the Women Solidarity-Indonesian Migrant Workers Legal Aid Institute (SP-LABMI) and the Association of Indonesian Women for Justice-Legal Aid Institute (LBH APIK- Jakarta), demanded the authorities compensated Imas for the delay in her release from prison.

Imas has been detained since Nov. 2, 2000, one day after she delivered her baby.