[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 27



INDONESIA:

Bali 9: how 2 young Australian men ended up on death row in Indonesia----It's 
almost a decade since Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran strapped heroin to 
nervous drug couriers in the plot that would see them jailed. Everyone agrees 
they are reformed men now. So why are they marked for execution?



In a Bali hotel room almost a decade ago, 2 young Australian men strapped 
packages of heroin to the bodies of 4 nervous drug couriers - 1 package around 
each thigh and another to the back of their waists.

Andrew Chan, then 21, and Myuran Sukumaran, 24, both from Sydney, weren't 
taking the risk of personally smuggling more than 8kg of heroin to Australia. 
They were the organisers of a Bali "holiday" for 7 other young Australians. 
They gave the orders, booked flights and accommodation, picked up the heroin, 
even bought loose, gaudy tourist shirts to cover up the drugs.

The Bali 9, as they are now known, had been followed by Indonesian police since 
the day they arrived in the tourist mecca - tipped off by Australian federal 
police. Chan was arrested at the airport with the 4 couriers on 17 April 2005 
??? Renae Lawrence, Martin Stephens, Scott Rush and Michael Czugaj - just 
before boarding a flight to Sydney. Sukumaran was arrested the same night in a 
Bali hotel room with 3 other would-be mules.

The couriers admitted their crimes and are serving life or 20-year prison 
sentences. But Chan and Sukumaran denied they had anything to do with the 
scheme and blamed the drug mules for scapegoating them. The extensive 
surveillance, phone records and the evidence of the couriers made their denials 
unbelieveable. In 2006 they were sentenced to death by firing squad.

In their book on the case, journalists Cindy Wockner and Madonna King give an 
unflattering portrait of the 2 men at that time. Chan, the son of Chinese 
immigrants, was "a small-time brute" in his youth, and the "enforcer" of this 
smuggling attempt. Sukumaran, born in London of Sri Lankan heritage, was sullen 
and "always looked menacing".

During his trial, he was evasive, claiming he couldn't remember even basic 
details. Several of the small-time couriers said they were frightened of the 
pair, that they had threatened them and their families if they did not 
cooperate, a claim Chan and Sukumaran denied.

It was always hard at the time to elicit sympathy for the 2 organisers of this 
mid-level smuggling attempt. But a decade on there is no doubt that if 
Indonesia executes Chan and Sukumaran, it will be killing different men. They 
have admitted their crimes and expressed remorse. They are leaders at Bali's 
Kerobokan prison, organising classes in everything from computers to 
philosophy. They have learnt Indonesian and counsel other prisoners. Their 
reform is at the heart of their last attempts to save their lives, and it is 
the plea of their desperate families. Why kill 2 young men who have had a 
decade to change, to contribute, to reform?

It is not just their lawyers and families who say so. In a highly unusual 
intervention, then governor of the prison, Siswanto, told an appeal hearing in 
2010 that the pair were model prisoners whose lives should be spared. Their 
reform was "not a camouflage act", he said.

"They are still young. They deserve to be given time to fix their past 
behaviour. I personally cannot accept it if they are executed."

In death penalty cases, after years of appeals and dashed hopes, there are the 
final, frantic, desperate days. Chan and Sukumaran are held in the crowded 
Kerobokan prison. Their conventional legal appeals are exhausted. The newly 
elected Indonesian president Joko Widodo, rejected Sukumaran's plea for 
clemency earlier this month, and Chan's last week.

They face being strapped to a pole and executed by an Indonesian firing squad, 
or a bullet to the head if the 12 marksmen somehow fail to kill them. Because 
they committed the crime together, they will be executed together.

The sentence could be carried out any time now, with 3 days' notice to allow 
the condemned men to say farewell to family and friends. Chan, now 31, and 
Sukumaran, 33, would be the 1st Australians to be executed under Indonesia???s 
tough drug trafficking laws but they would be far from the 1st foreigners.

In December, Widodo said he would not grant clemency to any of the 64 drug 
convicts on death row, around 1/3 of them believed to be foreign nationals. 
Briton Lindsay Sandiford, 58, is among them, sentenced in January 2013 for 
smuggling cocaine into Bali.

Widodo was considered a reformer and moderate when he took office in October 
but he has not wavered on drugs. Going ahead with executions is "important 
shock therapy" in the struggle against the drug scourge in his country, he 
says.

He has been true to his word. In the early hours of 18 January, 6 convicted 
drug traffickers were executed by firing squad, including citizens from the 
Netherlands, Brazil, Nigeria, Malawi and Vietnam. Pleas for clemency were 
ignored, and the Netherlands and Brazil withdrew their ambassadors in protest. 
The Dutch foreign minister, Bert Koenders, said it was "cruel and unusual 
punishment which constitutes an unacceptable denial of human dignity and 
integrity". Brazil???s president, Dilma Rousseff, was "distressed and outraged" 
that the sentence was carried out.

Chan and Sukumaran's Indonesian lawyers plan a last-ditch application for 
judicial review this week. Still, they know the denial of presidential clemency 
was devastating news. Their Melbourne-based lawyer, Julian McMahon, was in Bali 
when the decision was made public, and admitted that "there's not a lot of 
hope" now.

Supporters understand the complexity of all this, that the lives of Chan and 
Sukumaran are caught up in politics and history. Indonesia is a vast 
archipelago nation of 250 million people, a fast-growing democracy, but still a 
developing country struggling with rapid change and resentful of interference 
from former western colonialists.

They are careful not to criticise Indonesia too stridently, aware that to do so 
risks harming any remaining hope for the two prisoners. They know, too, that 
public opinion is mixed, even in Australia, where a small majority support the 
death penalty for terrorist cases and where few have sympathy for traffickers 
of heroin.

Yet as more Australians focus on what might happen to these men, others are 
involved in trying to highlight its pointlessness. The Mercy Campaign has 
gathered 30 prominent Australians, including Germaine Greer and the 
conservative radio host Alan Jones, to "stand for mercy". The campaign is 
gathering momentum, with more than 65,000 people signing a petition to the 
Indonesian president.

The campaign's co-founder, lawyer Matthew Goldberg, says the petition is to 
show that people care about this case, that it is being watched, "that members 
of the public have put their name to the movement to protect these guys".

Supporters understand that the Australian government's advocacy is critical but 
that it needs to be done quietly, out of the public eye.

And they know something that is gruesomely pragmatic. As much as they oppose 
the death penalty for anyone, they have to distinguish these 2 men as more 
deserving of mercy than others.

Peter Morrissey SC has worked pro bono on the case since 2007 and says the key 
is for the Indonesian authorities to engage with these particular individuals. 
The heart of the attempt at a 2nd judicial review is that there is "new 
evidence and circumstances" - the men are not the men they were.

"The campaign of persuasion is to try to get the president of Indonesia and 
those advising him to actually engage with the 2 boys, the 2 young men,??? 
Morrissey told Guardian Australia. "Once they engage on an individual level, 
these are the very 2 who ought to be given clemency. Their rehabilitation is a 
very uplifting story and they should be advanced as a success story of the 
Indonesian system."

It is common for those on death row to argue they have changed, have found 
religion, are remorseful, and it is inevitable for someone facing a death 
sentence to reassess their lives. Yet there is nobody who denies that the 
transformation of Chan and Sukumaran is sincere and profound.

Sukumaran has become a portrait painter, is completing a fine arts degree by 
correspondence, and is being mentored by the well-known Australian artist Ben 
Quilty, who has said: "As all stereotypes fall away, Myuran has done a horrible 
thing - but that's a long time ago."

Sukumaran teaches English, computer skills, graphic design and other classes to 
prisoners and has been appointed to a leadership position - supervising a group 
of more than 20 prisoners, resolving disputes and liaising with guards.

Chan, from a Christian family, is now deeply religious. He studies theology and 
runs services in the prison. Both counsel others on the dangers of drugs.

"Andrew is an extrovert, a cheerful lovely soul, a cheeky guy," says Morrissey. 
"His rehabilitation has been quite simple."

"Myuran is a complex, intelligent guy. He began as an artist and his engagement 
in the educational side of it has been a real journey for him about life. He's 
a very talented person, he's a thinker, he's introspective.

"Both of them are very sombre about being take away and killed; they dwell on 
it."

The arguments are humanitarian but also legal. Morrissey says it is unlawful 
not to consider the cases of the 64 traffickers on death row individually. 
"When Indonesia says it is enforcing its laws, it's not. They have a law on 
clemency that says you have a right to apply for clemency [but] they've said in 
advance that all 64 are dead. That is a very serious matter."

According to Amnesty International, 13 countries executed people for drug 
offences in 2013, including China, Singapore, Vietnam, Iran and Saudi Arabia. 
It says there is no evidence that capital punishment deters serious drug 
crimes.

The death penalty is lawful under international law but is restricted to "the 
most serious crimes", such as those causing death or serious bodily harm. The 
UN human rights committee has condemned the death penalty in drug cases.

The legal appeals are made more complicated by the Indonesian judicial system, 
which has undergone significant reform but remains confusing. There are 2 
senior courts, the supreme court and the constitutional court, which are at 
odds over whether a 2nd judicial appeal is even possible.

The constitutional court has said it is - it has also advised that someone who 
has been on death row for 10 years and has been of good behaviour deserves to 
have their case reviewed with a view to commuting the death sentence to a term 
of imprisonment. The supreme court has said there is no place for a 2nd 
judicial review. The lawyers are not even certain their application will be 
successfully lodged.

"One of Joko's interests is to not undermine the judiciary and that's a 
legitimate thing for him to say," Morrissey says. "However it has to be 
recognised that they still have major corruption problems, major inconsistency 
problems. At the moment, the constitutional court and the supreme court are at 
each other's throats, and it's an embarrassment to them.

"But our campaign is to persuade. It is not to tick them off and to lecture. 
What we have to do is to find a way to persuade the president that it's not 
weakness to show mercy."

Indonesia has been a transit country for drugs for years and drug use among its 
young, even in remote villages, is soaring, according to official figures. One 
response was for the government to abandon its unofficial moratorium on the 
death penalty in 2013. The executions of the 6 traffickers this month were the 
1st in the new president's term of office and officials have little patience 
for mercy pleas.

"We should get this straight," Tedjo Edhy Purdjanto, the co-ordinating minister 
for political, legal and security affairs, said. "Because of the drug lords, 40 
drug addicts die every day." At the same time, Indonesia expresses outrage when 
its own nationals are handed death sentences overseas and fights to have them 
returned.

At home, Indonesia wages its "war on drugs", with the interdiction of 
traffickers its primary weapon. It is an approach mirrored in many Asian 
countries, alarmed at the rising drug use that has come with rising wealth.

The idea of harm minimisation for drug users, common in western Europe as well 
as in Australia, has not taken hold in many Asian countries and there is strong 
mainstream support for the death penalty among Indonesians.

Amnesty said in its 2013 report that, despite a steady trend towards the 
abolishment of the death penalty worldwide, there had been setbacks in the Asia 
Pacific, with Indonesia and Vietnam resuming executions. China is believed to 
kill thousands of people each year, more than all the other 20 countries which 
carry out the death penalty combined.

Ross Taylor, a businessmen and president of the West Australian-based Indonesia 
Institute, says Chan and Sukumaran's cases are entwined with politics. The new 
president's decisiveness is being questioned, he says, and his political 
enemies are looking for signs of weakness.

"If he was to give clemency to Chan and Sukumaran, the real danger for him 
would be that Indonesia's independence, its sovereignty, would be seen to be 
under attack from a big western country to the south," Taylor says. "He'd be 
seen as [having] been bullied, while he's still killing Indonesians. That would 
be where he would sign his own political death warrant."

The Australian government is treading cautiously around all this. Tony Abbott 
has spoken personally with the president and, while careful to emphasise 
respect for Indonesian sovereignty, has stressed the "evidence of genuine 
remorse, of genuine rehabilitation" of the 2 condemned men.

"In the end, mercy has to be a part of every justice system, including the 
Indonesian one," he says.

The prime minister says his government will say no more publicly, a strategy 
endorsed by former diplomats, who insist that any attempt to grandstand will 
make it harder for Indonesia to change its position.

"I've always believed that notwithstanding public pressures, results are more 
likely to be achieved if negotiations are carried out privately and without 
publicity," said Richard Woolcott, a former Australian ambassador to Indonesia.

There is some residual guilt in Australia about the fate of these 2 men. Before 
Scott Rush was to leave for Bali in 2005, his father, Lee, learned he was going 
and felt "sick in the stomach". He contacted a friend and expressed his worry 
that his son might be contemplating a drug run.

His friend called a contact in the Australian federal police, requesting that 
19-year-old Scott be stopped at the airport as he had previous drug convictions 
and was on bail. Instead, the police contacted their Indonesian counterparts, 
requesting surveillance of the Bali 9, and handing over details about dates and 
flights. They must have known that if Indonesia arrested the perpetrators, they 
faced the death penalty. The federal police said they had no choice but to 
cooperate with the Indonesians.

The cooperation was widely criticised, with questions about why the police did 
not wait until the nine returned to Australia to arrest them, or follow them in 
Sydney to find the ringleaders of the drug operation, who have never been 
caught. Chan and Sukumaran might have been the organisers but they were not the 
big fish.

None of this matters now to Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, whose only wish 
is to live. The two admitted their involvement years ago and apologised for 
pleading not guilty at trial. They have expressed sorrow and remorse for what 
they have done and have worked hard to earn a chance at life. "From the bottom 
of my heart I can honestly say I am now a different person and a reformed 
person," Sukumaran said during 1 appeal.

Their families are going through a particular kind of hell. "It is like 
stabbing your own mother and father in the heart and ripping out that knife and 
watching them bleed to death," Chan said in an interview in 2010.

In statements at the weekend, family members spoke of their fear in 
contemplating that the Indonesian state is preparing to kill their son, or 
their brother.

"I'm terrified," said Sukumaran's mother, Raji. "I've been told my son will be 
taken out and shot at any time. I don't know what to do. He doesn't deserve to 
die."

(source: The Guardian)

*****************

Indonesia's Widodo vows no amnesty for death row drug traffickers



Indonesia's president has said he will not compromise over death sentences 
given to convicted drug traffickers, despite international outcry.

Joko Widodo made the comments in an interview with CNN to mark his first 100 
days in power.

He said the policy also applied to 2 Australians on death row in Indonesia - 
Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran - who have had appeals for clemency rejected.

5 foreigners and 1 Indonesian were executed by firing squad last week.

Indonesia has some of the toughest drug laws in the world. It ended a 4-year 
moratorium on executions in 2013.

Joko Widodo has always insisted he will show no mercy towards drug criminals, 
saying they have ruined lives.

'No amnesty'

When asked by CNN why he was standing firm despite protests from countries 
around the world he said: "Imagine every day we have 50 people die because of 
narcotics, of drugs.

"In 1 year, it's 18,000 people who die because of narcotics.

"We are not going to compromise for drug dealers. No compromise. No 
compromise," he added.

Australian Myuran Sukumaran (R) and Andrew Chan (L), the ringleaders of the 
'Bali 9' drug ring, wait for their verdict at a court cell in Denpasar, on Bali 
island, 14 February 2006 Australians Chan and Sukumaran have already had their 
final pleas for clemency rejected by the president He said it was up to the 
courts to hand down death sentences and said while convicts could still appeal 
to him "there will be no amnesty".

Australia opposes the death penalty and its government has repeatedly 
campaigned on behalf of Chan and Sukumaran. They were in a group of 9 
Australians arrested in Bali in 2005 with more than 8.3kg (18lb) of heroin.

Chan and Sukumaran have already had their final pleas for clemency rejected by 
the president's office.

When asked specifically if there would be relief for the Australians, Mr Widodo 
shook his head.

Last week, Indonesia executed convicts from Malawi, Nigeria, Vietnam, Brazil 
and the Netherlands as well as 1 from Indonesia.

It prompted Brazil and the Netherlands to recall their ambassadors in protest.

Australian authorities have threatened to do the same if Chan and Sukumaran are 
put to death.

(source: BBC news)

*********************

Lawyer urges Bali 9 execution appeal



Australians Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan have been refused permission to 
leave prison to make a last-ditch appeal of their death sentences.

Their Indonesian lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis says it's hoped the court registrar 
will go to them instead.

The Bali 9 ringleaders have been on death row in Kerobokan jail since 2006.

But their date with the firing squad is nearing after they were denied 
presidential clemency.

Mr Lubis will file for a judicial review, known as a PK, late this week.

"I will still file a 2nd PK because I do believe (there's) a misapplication of 
the law, serious mistakes by previous judges," he said.

"Then there are changes that have taken place at Kerobokan Prison in the case 
of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran."

Mr Lubis says the pair have achieved a remarkable rehabilitation, and inspired 
improvement in the jail and fellow inmates.

The Supreme Court isn't involved in rehabilitation and doesn't know these 
facts, he said.

But it's uncertain whether the courts will allow a 2nd judicial review.

As the legal effort goes on to save Chan, 31, and Sukumaran, 33, so do 
diplomatic efforts.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott says the government will continue pressing the men's 
case to President Joko Widodo.

But Mr Joko says Indonesia's drugs problem needs a serious approach.

"Imagine, every day we have 50 people die because of narcotics, because of 
drugs," he said in an interview with CNN to mark 100 days in office.

"In 1 year, it's 18,000 people who die because of narcotics.

"We are not going to compromise for drug dealers.

"No compromise. No compromise."

Mr Joko said it was the courts that determined death sentences, and the 
condemned could ask him for clemency.

"But I tell you, there will be no amnesty for drug dealers," he said.

Asked if that meant no relief for the Australians, Mr Joko just shook his head.

The first 6 of 64 drug offenders on death row were sent to the firing squad 
last week.

Authorities will this week evaluate the 1st executions before setting a date 
for the next round.

Those executions prompted Brazil and The Netherlands to withdraw their 
ambassadors in protest after their pleas to save their citizens were ignored.

Australia could take the same step if Chan and Sukumaran are killed.

(source: sbs.com.au)

********************

British grandmother facing execution by firing squad in Indonesia signs own 
death warrant



A British grandmother sentenced to death in Indonesia believes she has signed 
her own warrant after being convicted of drugs offences.

Lindsay Sandiford, 58, who is from Redcar in Yorkshire, could be the next 
foreigner to face a firing squad in the country after she confirmed the death 
sentence issued to her.

Ms Sandiford was convicted of smuggling cocaine to the party-island of Bali in 
2013, but claims she smuggled the drug because a crime syndicate said they 
would harm her sons if she refused. She fears her execution could be imminent.

She says she was made to a sign a letter in Indonesian which she did not 
understand, and fears it could have been a death warrant.

Speaking from Bali's Kerobokan Prison, Sandiford told her sister Hilary Parsons 
in a phone conversation: "If I sign the letter, am I signing my own death 
warrant? Am I saying, "Go ahead and shoot me?" The letter is in Indonesian so I 
won't even know what it says," according to the Mail on Sunday newspaper.

Last week 5 foreigners were shot dead by the country's government after being 
convicted of drugs offences.

The crackdown comes after Indonesia's populist new president Joko Widodo 
pledged to show no mercy to people convicted of smuggling drugs.

"We want to send a warning to international drug syndicates that Indonesia 
doesn't want to be a stopping place, market place or even a place for producers 
of narcotics," he has previously said.

The grandmother is currently without legal representation after the Foreign 
Office refused to fund 38k pounds for a 2nd appeal. She is reported by her 
family to be suffering from depression.

Last July 5 UK Supreme Court judges asked the Foreign Secretary to consider 
providing the woman with legal assistance, but this idea was dismissed by 
Philip Hammond. She lost her 1st appeal in the summer of 2013.

Human Rights group Amnesty International told The Independent the letter Ms 
Sandiford had been asked to sign was believed to be a confirmation that she had 
exhausted all of her appeals.

She still has a clemency hearing, but this is dependent on the country's new 
president, who has staked his reputation on executing people charged with drug 
trafficking.

Amnesty says it has appealed for urgent action to save a further 20 foreign 
nationals apart from Ms Sandiford.

Indonesia's new president came to power in October last year on the back of a 
series of eye-catching promises.

Aside from an acceleration of executions for drug offences, Mr Widodo has also 
ordered the Indonesian navy to sink fishing boats it finds illegally fishing in 
the country's territorial waters.

A Foreign Office spokesperson told The Independent: "We continue to offer 
consular assistance to Lindsay Sandiford and her family at this difficult time. 
The UK strongly opposes the death penalty in all circumstances without 
exception. We have recently made representations about the death penalty to the 
Indonesian government, and we will continue to do so."

On the issue of legal representation, the FCO said: "Our policy is that HMG 
does not pay for legal representation for British nationals overseas. However, 
we assist British nationals in identifying potential legal representation, 
including by working closely with NGOs, (for example with Reprieve). It was 
through Consular staff's efforts in Indonesia that we were able to identify a 
lawyer who was prepared to assist Lindsay Sandiford with her appeal."

(source: The Independent)

****************************

Drug Executions Undermine Indonesia's Rule of Law----Crime & Punishment 
Indonesia has yet to realize its claim of having moved from a criminalization 
to a rehabilitation approach



The recent execution of 6 convicts for drug-related crimes raises profound 
ethical questions about what constitutes a just and appropriate punishment in 
light of changing moral and penal norms worldwide.

Following international rebuke and condemnation for the executions on human 
rights grounds, Indonesian officials and commentators attempted to reframe 
debate over the death penalty in terms the convicted drug traffickers' causal 
responsibility for harms resultant from their criminal acts; many also invoked 
arguments that the executions upheld the rule of law in Indonesia, a prima 
facie principle that foreign powers ought accord due respect.

The arguments based only on causal responsibility for drug-related crimes are 
risable and not strong enough to be considered.

Instead, let's look at whether the rule of law argument holds up when we 
examine how drug laws are actually implemented.

The rule of law is a principle of governance in which all persons - as well as 
the state itself - are accountable to laws, and that those laws are consistent 
with international human rights norms and standards.

More specifically, the rule of law means, in the words of jurist and legal 
theorist Eric Posner, "that judges decide cases 'without respect of persons,' 
that is, without considering the social status, attractiveness et cetera, of 
the parties or their lawyers."

President Joko Widodo's anti-drug agenda includes initiatives to establish 
rehabilitation centers and empower the National Narcotics Board (BNN) to assist 
in enforcing drug laws and developing standards for prosecutors to determine 
the difference between a suspected drug user and a trafficker.

The ultimate vision for these powers is the achievement of a Drug Free Society; 
success in this regard must be qualified by authorities' obeisance to the rule 
of law.

But does Joko's agenda evince a coherent link between controlling drugs and the 
human rights necessity for drug offenses based to be defined and punished on 
the basis of rule of law principles?

The supremacy of law is a fundamental to civil rights.

Indonesia has taken a prohibitionist stance toward drugs, on which it declared 
a war 15 years ago. In empirical terms, drug policy analysts have concluded 
that this "war on drugs" has failed to achieve its aim of a drug-free society, 
with serious negative implications for human rights. According to BNN, there 
were more than 4.2 million drug users in Indonesia last year.

According to Health Ministry data published by UNAIDS, Indonesia is 1 of the 
only countries in the Asia-Pacific region with an increasing rate of new HIV 
infections diagnosed.

With the exception of Papua, where the epidemic is generalized in the 
population, infections remain concentrated among the key populations at high 
risk.

Although no longer the source of the majority of new infections since 2007, 
injecting drug use still accounts for a significant source of newly diagnosed 
HIV in infections.

Compounding the public health implications for the non-incarcerated population 
is authorities' clear inability to control drugs inside prisons - perhaps to an 
even greater extent than outside.

A 2010 report by the UN's former special rapporteur on torture, Manfred Nowak, 
examined 350 Indonesian penal facilities with a combined capacity of 75,000 
people. Yet in December 2007, the report found the facilities housed 134,000 
people, of which 60,000 had not yet been sentenced. This overcrowding 
contributes the poor control of drug trafficking in prisons.

Should the new president, then, keep the old-style approach on his agenda?

Setting aside the question of the efficacy of Indonesia's efforts in its war on 
drugs, we must consider arguments as to the death penalty's role in minimizing 
legal indeterminacy and ensuring the rule of law.

The 2009 Anti-Narcotics Law included from the outset provisions that authorized 
judges to recommend rehabilitation over imprisonment, but this has, in 
practice, still not become the predominant approach adopted toward infringers.

Furthermore, regulations for determining a drug user from a drug trafficker - 
drafted jointly, though years late, by the BNN, the Attorney General and the 
Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, unveiled only in the past few month and 
still spottily implemented - rely on arbitrary and quite low thresholds for 
drug weight, as well as and subjective character assessments by penal and 
prosecutorial authorities. The regulations also totally eschew the question of 
drug purity.

Effectively, this has meant that the vast majority of people facing drug 
charges wind up facing similarly long sentences - except foreigners, who as 
recent executions show, are disproportionately given death, and well-connected 
defendants whose attorneys can pull enough strings with prosecutors to get a 
speedy disposition on their "user versus trafficker" assessment - a procedure 
that can effectively result in dismissal of their charge.

Indonesia claims to have moved from criminalization to a rehabilitation 
approach. However, realization of this stated policy premise needs clear and 
well-designed regulations and laws for drug possession and users' health 
treatment that make it easy for authorities to uphold both the rule of law and 
protect citizens human and civil rights.

Equality before the law will lead to the fair judgment and solutions. Essential 
to this is the elimination of the stigma that drugs face by law enforcement, as 
well as in courts and prisons, that impinges in their ability to seek fair 
access to justice and social services.

It is time for the new administration to challenge the death penalty's shoddy 
justification on causal responsibility grounds and instead ensure rule of law 
in Indonesia that is both enforceable and humane.

(source: Commentary; Armin Fransiska is a senior lecturer at Atmajaya 
University in Jakarta----The Jakarta Globe)

********************

Dispatch from death row----It is a moral imperative for govt to appeal for the 
repatriation of Nepalis on death row



Indonesia, a country of 250 million, is notorious for its severe drug policy. 
Most often drug traffickers are executed or imprisoned for life. On January 18, 
Indonesia executed 5 people convicted on drug trafficking charges; 4 of them 
were foreign nationals from Brazil, Malawi, Nigeria, and the Netherlands. More 
than 138 people await execution on death row, 1/3 of them foreigners, reports 
The Guardian newspaper. Among them is a Nepali man, Indra Bahadur Tamang, 
arrested in 2001 with 900 grams of heroin. Nearly 14 years later, it is still 
uncertain when Indra Bahadur will face execution.

Nepal's protracted transition has no doubt taken a toll on all facets of 
governance. And this cost has been especially telling in Nepal's diplomacy. So 
it comes as no surprise that the government remains unaware of Indra Bahadur's 
fate in Indonesia or of Nepalis jailed in other countries. It is estimated that 
more than a dozen Nepalis await execution in the Middle East and Malaysia. Last 
August, in one telling incident, Shova Pariyar, a single mother from Tanahun, 
was beheaded by Saudi Arabia on murder charges. The Nepal government did not 
make any attempts to appeal for clemency.

Despite the contributions that remittances from migrant workers make to the 
Nepali economy, there is little effort from the government to safeguard their 
rights. Most migrants leave with little to no knowledge of the language and 
culture of their countries of destination and hence, become easy prey for 
unscrupulous employers. Most countries in the Middle East and East Asia, the 
primary destinations for Nepali migrants, have opaque legal proceedings and 
stringent punishments when found guilty. Many international rights 
organisations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have 
raised legitimate concerns over such legal processes and capital punishment 
provisions.

Nepal, to its credit, has refused to enshrine capital punishment for any crime. 
On this moral ground alone, it is the responsibility of the Nepal government to 
press for the repatriation of its citizens on death row or at least appeal for 
clemency. Indonesia itself made a strong appeal against the execution of one of 
its citizens in Saudi Arabia. Brazil and the Netherlands made similar overtures 
to Indonesia on behalf of their citizens. The Nepal government's efforts in 
this regard have been sorely lacking. Lacking government initiatives, civil 
society and Non-Resident Nepali organisations have stepped in to raise 'blood 
money', a debt that can be paid to aggrieved parties in the Middle East to 
appeal for amnesty. But unless high-level initiatives are forthcoming, Nepalis 
will continue to meet their doom. The government, therefore, must immediately 
initiate efforts to appeal to the governments of host countries to repatriate 
its citizens on death row. Failing this, it can still appeal for a reduction in 
sentencing to life imprisonment. As international human rights law restricts 
the use of the death penalty to "the most serious crimes," there is a strong 
moral case to be made in favour of such Nepalis.

(source: eKantipur.com)