[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

May 1



HUNGARY:

Hungary says 'does not plan' to introduce death penalty, after PM's call riles 
EU



Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban "does not plan to introduce the death 
penalty," his chief of staff Janos Lazar said Thursday, after strong EU 
criticism of Orban's call for debate on its reintroduction.

Orban informed European Parliament (EP) president Martin Schulz by telephone 
that the government would debate the issue, but "the prime minister does not 
plan to introduce it in the country," Lazar said.

Hungary will "keep to EU laws", he added.

The EP confirmed in a statement that Orban had "assured the President that the 
Hungarian government will respect and honour all European treaties and 
legislation".

The controversy first erupted on Tuesday when Orban pushed for a debate on 
bringing back capital punishment, saying existing penalties in Hungary were too 
soft.

Orban's comments immediately sparked a sharp response after a series of spats 
with Brussels over his hardline stance on human rights and civil society norms 
- key values for the European Union.

Earlier, European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker had warned Orban that he 
faced a "fight" if he reintroduced the death penalty.

"Mr Orban should immediately make clear that this is not his intention and 
would it be his intention, it would be a fight," Juncker told a press 
conference, stressing that the EU charter forbids the death penalty in the 
28-nation bloc.

Orban's junior coalition partner, the Christian Democrats, had also distanced 
themselves from his comments, saying they opposed the death penalty.

Hungary abolished capital punishment after the end of communism in 1990, 
fulfilling a key condition for membership of the European Union, which it 
joined in 2004.

Orban's call for a debate on capital punishment was seen as a further 
provocation after remarks last week in which he called the EU's immigration 
policy "stupid", just after hundreds of migrants seeking to get to Europe 
drowned in the Mediterranean.

The right-wing Orban, who has been in power for 5 years, has been losing ground 
recently to the extreme-right Jobbik party which supports the death penalty and 
is strongly anti-immigration.

(source:straitstimes.com)








EGYPT:

Death for soccer violence



An Egyptian court yesterday took a step towards imposing the death penalty on 
11 men for involvement in deadly soccer stadium violence in 2012, in a court 
session shown on television.

The judge referred the sentencing to Egypt's Grand Mufti, the country's most 
senior religious authority, a step towards the death penalty, which could be 
imposed at a later court hearing on May 30.

Soccer matches are often a flashpoint for violence in the country but the Port 
Said incident was Egypt's worst ever soccer disaster, killing more than 70 fans 
and injuring at least 1 000. Many of those killed were crushed when panicked 
fans tried to escape from the stadium after a post-match pitch invasion by 
supporters of the local side Al-Masry.

Others fell or were thrown from terraces, witnesses said.

In January 2013, a court sentenced 21 people to death in the case, but after 
more than a year, the high court overturned the sentences and ordered a 
retrial. The Grand Mufti's decision is not binding but referral is needed in 
order to impose a death sentence.

The case could be subject to a further appeal which could take several years.

(source: Reuters)








INDONESIA:

Why Did Indonesia Just Execute 8 People for Drug Crimes?



Indonesia: Stop Imminent Executions

April 24, 2015:

Press release

The coffins for the condemned in Indonesia's latest round of executions are 
finally being put to use on the country's remote island of Nusa Kambangan. On 
April 29, Indonesian authorities executed 8 death row prisoners - 7 of whom 
were foreign nationals, from Australia, Ghana, Nigeria, and Brazil, and all of 
whom were convicted of drug smuggling - by firing squad. For the executioners, 
it was a familiar procedure: Indonesia put 6 other convicted drug traffickers 
to death in January, including 5 foreigners. (Non-Indonesians constitute the 
majority of prisoners on that country's death row for drug crimes.)

The executions are a tragedy not just because of moral objections to the death 
penalty. Despite Jakarta's defense of the death penalty as "shock therapy" 
against drug trafficking, the alleged deterrence effect of the death penalty 
has been repeatedly debunked. Most recently, on March 4, the U.N. assistant 
secretary-general for human rights, Ivan Simonovic, stated that there was "no 
evidence that the death penalty deters any crime." A University of Oxford 
analysis concluded that capital punishment does not deter "murder to a 
marginally greater extent than does the threat and application of the 
supposedly lesser punishment of life imprisonment." That renders today's 
punishments merely cruel and irrevocable.

Indonesia's current execution spree is no judicial accident. The archipelago 
nation ended a 4-year unofficial moratorium on the use of capital punishment on 
March 15, 2013, when it executed Adami Wilson, a 48-year-old Malawian national, 
by firing squad. An Indonesian court had convicted Wilson in 2004 of smuggling 
2.2 pounds of heroin into the country. Since then, Indonesia has executed a 
total of 6 other people, all of them convicted on drug crimes. President Joko 
Widodo, who took office in November 2014, has made the death penalty for 
convicted drug traffickers a signature policy issue.

Widodo's death penalty policy and his stated refusal to grant clemency, citing 
national sovereignty, have sparked a diplomatic firestorm. In March, Brazil 
refused to accept the credentials of Indonesia's incoming ambassador after the 
January execution of Brazilian citizen Marco Archer Cardoso for drug 
trafficking. Brazil also furiously sought clemency for Rodrigo Gularte, who was 
executed April 29 for drug trafficking, on the grounds that he had paranoid 
schizophrenia and was "in a very deteriorated psychiatric state." The 
Indonesian authorities refused clemency despite extensive diplomatic overtures 
aimed to spare Cardoso's life. In a related incident, the Netherlands withdrew 
its ambassador in Jakarta after the January execution of Dutch citizen Ang Kiem 
Soei, who died alongside Cardoso.

The diplomatic fallout from Indonesia's burst of executions has most seriously 
affected its relationship with its southern neighbor Australia. Canberra's 
efforts to obtain clemency for two Australians executed today, Myuran Sukumaran 
and Andrew Chan, prompted heated exchanges between the 2 governments. 
Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott had earlier described how he is 
"revolted" at the prospect of Sukumaran and Chan's executions.

Some of the international criticism of Widodo's death penalty policy comes from 
perceptions of its hypocrisy. Despite the mass executions today on Nusa 
Kambangan, Jakarta is devoting considerable resources to prevent the execution 
of Indonesian citizens overseas. They include Satinah Binti Jumadi Ahmad, an 
Indonesian domestic worker on death row in Saudi Arabia since 2010 for 
allegedly robbing and murdering the wife of her Saudi employer. Jakarta sent a 
formal appeal to Saudi Arabia's then King Abdullah to pardon Ahmad after paying 
the entirety of the victim's family legally recognized "blood debt" - 
equivalent to $1.9 million in late 2014. Indonesia has applied a combination of 
diplomatic pressure and cash payments over the past 3 years to secure 
commutation of death sentences for 189 Indonesians facing execution overseas - 
the crimes for those granted clemency include drug trafficking.

Widodo's death penalty policy also doesn't withstand international legal 
scrutiny. Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political 
Rights, which Indonesia acceded to in 2006, restricts the use of the death 
penalty to only "the most serious crimes" which the United Nations has defined 
as "intentional crimes with lethal or other extremely grave consequences." The 
United Nations Human Rights Committee and the U.N. expert on unlawful killings, 
Christof Heyns, have condemned using the death penalty in drug cases.

All this makes Indonesia's use of the death penalty for drug-related 
convictions particularly odious and wrongheaded. But Widodo need not look far 
afield for inspiration on how to resolve the worsening furor over his death 
penalty policy. On February 13, Fiji became the 99th country to abolish the 
death penalty, leaving Indonesia in the ranks of the 58 states, which retain 
it. For Widodo, it is time to recognize the well-documented failure of the 
death penalty as a crime deterrent and join the growing number of countries 
that have abolished capital punishment. Until he does, they'll need more 
caskets on Nusa Kambangan.

(source: Phelim Kine is deputy director for the Asia division at Human Rights 
Watch)

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

Indonesia Executes Man With Schizophrenia



Indonesia's Attorney General HM Prasetyo has high praise for the April 29 
executions of 8 people on the country's death penalty island of Nusa Kambangan, 
even saying the executions were "better, more orderly and more perfect" than 
those of 6 people in January.

That sunny appraisal suggests Prasetyo is unaware of the last moments of 
Rodrigo Gularte, a Brazilian national executed for drug trafficking. Gularte 
didn't realize that he was about to die until the final minutes before he went 
before the firing squad, a Catholic priest who had counselled him said. That 
lack of understanding was no herculean act of denial. It was because Gularte 
reportedly had bipolar disorder and paranoid schizophrenia and simply didn't 
understand the gravity of his situation until the very end. A Brazilian 
diplomat likewise described Gularte in "a very deteriorated psychiatric state" 
in the lead-up to his execution.

Indonesia's death penalty spree, powered by President Joko Widodo's 
wrong-headed belief in the deterrent effect of the death penalty, is already a 
barbaric punishment inconsistent with international human rights law, 
statements of United Nations human rights experts, and various UN bodies. Human 
rights law upholds every human being's "inherent right to life" and limits the 
death penalty to "the most serious crimes," typically crimes resulting in death 
or serious bodily harm.

But the apparent willingness of the Indonesian authorities to disregard medical 
evidence of Gularte's apparent psychosocial disability is an appalling 
violation of both Indonesian law and international human rights standards. The 
UN Commission on Human Rights adopted resolutions in 1999 and 2000 urging 
countries that retain the death penalty not to impose it "on a person suffering 
from any form of mental disorder." Article 44 of Indonesia's Penal Code 
excludes from criminal punishment any person demonstrating "disorder of his 
mental capacities."

Gularte's execution should prompt an urgent inquiry into this affront to basic 
dignity. It reinforces the need for the Indonesian government to impose an 
immediate moratorium on the death penalty and move toward eventual abolition. 
Until it does, the Indonesian government's death penalty "shock therapy" 
against convicted drug traffickers will risk yet more unlawful deaths.

(source: Human Rights Watch)

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

Indonesian envoy explains execution of 4 Nigerians



The Ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia to Nigeria, Harry Purwanto, in a 
meeting summoned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday, gave reasons why 
the country went ahead to execute 4 Nigerians and other nationals convicted on 
drug offences on Tuesday. .

According to him, the execution was in order since it was strictly done 
according to legal proceedings.

Purwanto said: "There was nothing we could do for those 4 Nigerians, because 
every legal process was completed and only then did the government of Indonesia 
implement the decision of the court."

According to him, the case has been on for 10 years, and Indonesia needed to 
make sure that adequate opportunity was given to the convicts within the bounds 
of the law, stressing that his government suspended the moratorium on death 
penalty due to the gravity and dangerous impact of drugs on their country.

He disclosed that Indonesia suffers from the harsh reality of the drug 
trafficking as about 4.5 million of their citizens especially the youth, are 
affected by the narcotics adding that only about 1.8 million of them have been 
rehabilitated.

He further said that between 33 and 50 victims of the drugs die every month 
describing it as unfortunate.

On the possibility of Prisoner Transfer Agreement between both countries, Mr. 
Purwanto said, "Actually, Indonesia will be happy to do that; but, 
unfortunately we do not have the legal basis, we have to wait for a new 
legislation in Indonesia but then we have to convince our members of parliament 
to do that."

Reacting to the incident, the Undersecretary Economic and Consular Affairs 
Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Bokunolu Onemola, 
said although the Federal Government protested the executions on the basis of 
subsisting friendly relations between both countries, Nigerians should desist 
from drug trafficking, especially in countries where capital punishment is 
being implemented.

He added that Nigeria would not recall its ambassador to Indonesia over the 
executions.

Jamiu Owolabi Abashin, 50, Martin Anderson, 50, Okwudili Oyatanze, 41, and 
Sylvester Obiekwe Nwolise, 47, were executed on Tuesday in Indonesia.

(source: Nigerian Guardian )

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

Indonesia mulls over 3rd round of execution of death row convicts



Indonesia's Attorney General's Office (AGO) will make an evaluation next week 
on whether to proceed with executing more death-row convicts in the near future 
after the 2 recent groups of executions drew international outcry.

AGO spokesman Tony Spontana said convicts set to be included in the execution 
list would be those who had exhausted all their legal attempts to avoid the 
penalty.

"An evaluation of the recent executions will be thoroughly evaluated next week. 
After that we will determine whether to proceed with the third round of 
executions in the near future, and the list of convicts who will face the 
firing squad," he said.

More than 162 death row convicts are currently awaiting their fate. Of the 
figure, 73 convicts are murderers while 89 are drug traffickers. The list 
excludes terrorist inmates, according to the AGO.

(source: Straits Times)

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

Indonesia Needs the Death Penalty to Deter Drug Traffickers



Indonesia's spiraling drug problem is the main reason why Jokowi should 
maintain his tough anti-drug stance.

International pressure has mounted on Indonesia in recent months to stop its 
enforcement of the death penalty. In January, Indonesian President Joko Widodo 
- known as Jokowi - ordered the execution of 6 convicted drug traffickers, 5 of 
whom were foreign nationals. Another group, including Australian duo Andrew 
Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, was executed on the island of Nusakambangan on April 
28, as various legal appeals had been exhausted.

Despite international concern, Jokowi should maintain his tough anti-drug 
stance for a number of reasons. Indonesia's drug problem is a state of 
emergency. It holds a sovereign right to enforce the law within its territory, 
and its enforcement of death penalty does not violate international law.

Millions of people are affected by drugs in Indonesia. According to the 
National Agency for Narcotics (BNN), 1 million people are addicted to drugs 
with little chance of recovery. Around 1.6 million people occasionally take 
drugs, while 1.4 million are regular consumers.

Indonesia is Southeast Asia's drug hub. The BNN, along with customs and police, 
has confiscated large quantities of drugs. In January, the police found 8.1 
kilograms of crystal methamphetamine. In 2014, the BNN impounded 157 kilograms 
of crystal meth in a drug bust in Jakarta, and in 2013, the police seized 9.9 
kilograms of crystal meth.

Each day, more than 30 people die of drugs, according to BNN estimates. Some 
observers have challenged the accuracy of data provided by the BNN, doubting 
the government's claim that Indonesia is facing a drug crisis that warrants the 
execution of convicted drug traffickers. However, these considerations should 
not divert attention from Indonesia's efforts to combat drug abuse.

Indonesia's estimates on drug use were jointly produced by the BNN and a 
reputable research center, the University of Indonesia's Center for Health 
Research. They used scientifically-based research methodologies and have 
considered the margin of error carefully in their studies.

So far, Indonesia does not have any data other than the BNN's 2008 studies. 
Experts admit that new data will provide stronger estimates than what is 
currently available. However, conducting a survey on Indonesia's large 
population is not easy.

IndonesiaWe cannot ignore the victims of drug abuse just because the harm 
cannot be accurately quantified. It is better to believe the worst situation of 
drug abuse based on the BNN's data and by looking at the realities in 
Indonesian communities.

In a personal interview, the head of the BNN said the government has allocated 
additional funding to reduce the demand for drugs. Under a new policy, drug 
users are not sent to jail but sentenced to mandatory rehabilitation. The 
program targets at least 100,000 people to recover from drug addiction a year. 
Under this policy, no drug user will be sent to prison. Only those who trade 
and gain profit from illegal drugs will be criminalized.

Indonesia's move to enforce the death penalty on convicted drug traffickers is 
protected by the principle of state sovereignty. Under this principle, 
Indonesia has the freedom to make and apply laws within its territory and on 
its citizens wherever they are, without any interference from other states or 
entities. Since the development of international law, the concept of state 
sovereignty has been the main foundation of the system of relationships between 
countries.

Indonesia is a party to the United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic 
in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances. In addition, to ensure the 
fulfilment of its human rights, Indonesia has become a party to the 
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

As part of the implementation of its international obligations, Indonesia has 
enacted several anti-drug laws, including Law No.35 of 2009 on Narcotics and 
Law No.5 of 1997 on Psychotropic Substances.

Indonesia has the authority to enforce these laws on anyone, including foreign 
nationals in its territory. Other states must not pressure or interfere in 
Indonesia's domestic application of the law. If other states intervene, it can 
be considered a violation of customary international law, which gives the right 
for Indonesia to retaliate to redress interventions.

Compliance With International Law

Indonesia is not violating international law in upholding the death penalty. 
Under the anti-drug trafficking convention, Indonesia is still allowed to apply 
the maximum penalty as deemed appropriate by the state to provide a deterrent 
to drug trafficking crime.

Indonesia has enshrined the death penalty into law in its 2009 anti-drug 
legislation. And in a 2007 judicial review, the Constitutional Court ruled that 
the death penalty was in line with Indonesia's constitution.

Some human rights activists argue that Indonesia is obliged to respect the 
right to life as stipulated under the ICCPR. They suggest Indonesia should 
abolish the death penalty. But the country provides all death row convicts 
equal opportunities to appeal. And after all legal proceedings have been 
completed, people on death row can request clemency to the president.

Some observers have indicated that some courts' procedures and rulings have 
been corrupted. But we cannot generalize the whole proceedings of Indonesian 
courts to be corrupt. Notorious decisions based on fraud and corruption were 
committed by small number of judges. Indonesia's legal system is not perfect, 
but the country is not a failed state in upholding the rule of law.

Indonesia's stance on the death penalty is in accordance with Article 6 
Paragraph 2 of the ICCPR, which states that countries may impose the death 
sentence "only for the most serious crimes in accordance with the law in force 
at the time of the commission of the crime."

Some might disagree and condemn the execution of convicts before the firing 
squad. However, we should also think about the victims of drug abuse who have 
died and those who are now suffering.

Considering the grave threat that drugs pose to Indonesia's younger 
generations, the Indonesian government should continue its forceful policy 
against drug-related crimes.

(source: Arie Afriansyah, fairobserver.com)

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

Bali 9 clemency deal ignored ----The Indonesian President's chief political 
rival promised to publicly support Joko Widodo if he granted clemency to Bali 9 
ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran.

The West Australian can reveal that military strongman Prabowo Subianto twice 
privately assured Mr Joko there would be no political consequences if Chan, 
Sukumaran and eight others on death row were reprieved.

Mr Prabowo's extraordinary behind-the-scenes intervention would have given the 
President face-saving political cover to spare the lives of Chan and Sukumaran.

It is understood that Mr Prabowo penned a letter to Mr Joko at the weekend in 
which he said that if the President were to "postpone the executions 
indefinitely", he would come out in support of the decision.

Mr Joko, under pressure from his political patron, former president Megawati 
Sukarnoputri, ignored the offer and the 2 Australians were killed by firing 
squad on Wednesday, along with 4 Nigerians, a Brazilian and an Indonesian.

2 people, a Frenchman and a Filipina woman, got late reprieves. Chan and 
Sukumaran's bodies were expected to be flown back to Australia today or 
tomorrow.

As reported by The West Australian in March, Australian diplomats sought Mr 
Prabowo's help to save Chan and Sukumaran, believing the former general could 
engineer a change of heart.

Mr Prabowo, the son-in-law of former dictator Suharto, narrowly lost last 
year's presidential race to Mr Joko but still wields great influence over 
Indonesia's Parliament and political system.

To Australian observers, Mr Prabowo had a much better grasp of the 
international repercussions for Indonesia if the executions went ahead.

The Abbott Government fears relations might not be fully restored until Mr 
Joko's term ends, in the same way that Australia's relationship with Malaysia 
did not properly thaw until Mahathir Mohamad retired, 10 years after Paul 
Keating called Dr Mahathir "recalcitrant" for not attending the APEC summit. Mr 
Joko does not face another election until 2019.

Publicly, Mr Prabowo has said he supports the death penalty but that Indonesia 
should have a "flexible" approach. He told an Indonesian news website in March 
that Australia was "performing its duty" by wanting Chan and Sukumaran's death 
sentences overturned.

Independent senator Nick Xenophon had for some time favoured lobbying Mr 
Prabowo.

"I was urged by my human rights contacts in Indonesia that this would have been 
worthwhile exploring," Senator Xenophon said.

"But I can understand the risks involved in such a strategy."

Though the majority of Indonesians wanted the condemned prisoners executed, 
some media outlets urged Mr Joko to first review each case.

"Backpedalling may be in the best interest of Joko and the nation," the Jakarta 
Globe newspaper said in its editorial this week.

"There is no shame in accepting and correcting one's mistake. This is not a 
sign of weakness. Rather, it is a sign of greatness.

"This is wisdom that will put him as a great leader."

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop lashed out at suggestions yesterday that the 
Government had made it easier for the Australian Federal Police to work with 
foreign governments in cases where the death penalty could be applied.

In 2014, Justice Minister Michael Keenan omitted any reference to Australia's 
opposition to the death penalty when laying out a mission statement on how the 
AFP should behave.

Labor questioned whether the Government had again opened the door to allowing 
the AFP to help another country pursue an Australian in a death penalty case.

Ms Bishop blasted Labor, saying it had deliberately twisted an innocuous 
document for political gain.

She said the AFP still had clear guidelines laying out what assistance could be 
given in death penalty cases and nothing had changed since Labor was in power.

The AFP is under pressure to explain why it tipped off Indonesian police about 
the Bali 9 drug smuggling operation in 2005 when there was a chance the death 
penalty could be imposed.

(source: Yahoo news)

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

Govt mulling 3rd round of executions



The Attorney General's Office (AGO) will make an evaluation next week whether 
to proceed with executing more death-row convicts in the near future after the 
2 recent batches of executions drew international outcry. AGO spokesman Tony 
Spontana said convicts set to be included in the execution list would be those 
who had exhausted all their legal attempts to avoid the penalty.

"An evaluation of the recent executions will be thoroughly evaluated next week. 
After that we will determine whether to proceed with the 3rd round of 
executions in the near future, and the list of convicts who will face the 
firing squad," he said.

More than 162 death row convicts are currently awaiting their fate.

Of the figure, 73 convicts are murderers while 89 are drug traffickers. The 
list excludes terrorist inmates, according to the AGO.

Citizens of the UK, the Netherlands, France, Nigeria, Malaysia and China are 
among the death row convicts. Early on Wednesday, the government executed 8 
inmates from Indonesia, Australia, Brazil, Nigeria and Ghana.

The executions were the 2nd round after the 1st was carried out on Jan. 18, 
during which 6 inmates from Indonesia, the Netherlands, Brazil, Nigeria, 
Vietnam and Malawi were killed by firing squad.

(source: The Jakarta Post)

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

"Welcome to Indonesia, Death Penalty for Drug Traffickers!" ---- Why the 
country's new president is executing more foreigners, despite international 
outrage



Shortly after boarding an Indonesian domestic flight, the voice of an 
air-stewardess will flood the intercom, sweetly informing you, in Indonesian 
and then again in broken English, that the penalty for transiting drugs is 
death. When you arrive at the airport in Jakarta, you will pass under a crimson 
banner that announces, "Welcome to Indonesia, Death Penalty for Drug 
Traffickers!"

But when Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, Indonesia's reformist new president, was 
inaugurated last October, it was not clear whether these warnings were still 
current. His predecessor, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, had executed people 
sparingly, even placing an unofficial 4-year moratorium on executions during 
his 2nd term. As a result, when Jokowi took office, there were as many as 65 
convicts on death row for drug offenses alone, including as estimated 45 
foreigners.

Yudhoyono had been criticized in the Indonesian press for bowing to foreign 
pressure and commuting the sentences of foreign drug traffickers. Eager to 
distinguish himself, Jokowi declared shortly after assuming office that there 
was a "national emergency" surrounding drugs - which, he claimed with little 
evidence, took 50 Indonesian lives a day. His administration insisted that only 
the death penalty would deter drug traffickers. 3 months later, in January, 
Jokowi proceeded with the 1st wave of mass executions; 6 drug offenders, 
including 5 foreigners, were killed by firing squad.

Just after midnight Wednesday morning, 8 more drug offenders were executed. Of 
those, the highest profile were a Brazilian man with paranoid schizophrenia 
who, according to his pastor, went to his death unaware that he was being 
executed, and 2 Australian men whose impending deaths inspired nationwide 
vigils back home and an extraordinary public campaign to have them freed (the 
duo had admitted to trying to smuggle 18.5 pounds of heroin). In a video 
titled, "Save our Boys, Mr. Abbott," a series of Australian celebrities had 
demanded that Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbot find a way to bring Andrew 
Chan and Myuran Sukamaran home. "Tony if you had any courage and compassion 
you'd get over to Indonesia and bring these 2 boys home," said one. "Show some 
balls."

The executions of all but one of the "Bali 9" have turned into a diplomatic 
nightmare for Indonesia, whose new president has been working to stimulate 
Indonesia's lagging economy by encouraging foreign investment. Australia 
withdrew its ambassador - the 1st time it had ever done so over citizens 
executed abroad - and promised to re-evaluate its relationship with the 
country. Brazil expressed anger but it didn't have an ambassador to pull, as 
its ambassador had already been recalled after the 1st Brazilian trafficker was 
executed in January; the government said it would delay the return of its 
ambassador to Jakarta. Ban Ki-moon, secretary general of the United Nations, 
pleaded with Indonesia to commute all further capital sentences. (There are 
still 33 foreigners on death row for narcotics offenses.)

"Jokowi did not expect the other nations to protest this hard," said 
YohanesSulaiman, lecturer in international relations at the Indonesian Defense 
University. "He was caught completely off guard."

And yet, on Thursday morning Indonesia announced its next wave of executions.

Indonesia's attorney general, HR Prasetyo, dismissed the international 
pressure, promising that the diplomatic fallback would be merely a "ripple." 
"It's the diplomatic domain, there will be a solution," he said. Indeed, the 
domestic pressure may be greater. A poll from Kompas newspaper showed that 86 % 
of Indonesians support executing the Australians. It will be difficult for 
Jokowi to back down now. "From what I have heard," Yohanes said, "the debate 
now in the Palace is, 'If we stop the executions now, then we bow down to 
foreign pressure.' So I think the government will keep pushing forward with 
[the executions], that's my gut feeling. But I am not sure they have a plan to 
deal with the international fallout."

The run of negative stories looks to continue, as the French Foreign Affairs 
Ministry declared it was "mobilized" over the case of Serge Atlaoui, its 
citizen on death row, and international media has begun focusing on the British 
grandmother who worried that she would be executed next. The one slightly 
optimistic story of the week - the last-minute halt to the execution of Mary 
Jane Veloso, an impoverished Filipino maid who was among the Bali 9 - also 
turned sour. Jokowi insisted that Mary Jane's execution was only being delayed 
to allow her to testify in a new court case. It would not be cancelled, despite 
the Filipino president's personal appeals.

Andreas Harsono of Human Rights Watch says Jokowi is under intense domestic 
political pressure to continue with his current course, and that the BNN (the 
national narcotics agency) and the attorney general "are for moving forward." 
Indonesian politicians, meanwhile, have used the opportunity to posture against 
what they portray as countries eager to encroach on their sovereignty. Tjahji 
Kumolo, the minister of Home Affairs, said in March: "If there were a thousand 
Tony Abbotts it wouldn't be an issue. Whoever it is - a thousand secretary 
generals of the U.N., a thousand prime ministers - Indonesia is a sovereign 
nation." Jokowi repeatedly warned nations not to interfere with Indonesia's 
sovereignty. After the executions, Jokowi repeated, "It's the sovereignty of 
our law." His vice president was even more scathing of foreign governments' 
objections, saying of Australia, "We import more from Australia so if there is 
any freeze in trade relations, it would be their loss." Tobias Basuki, a 
researcher at CSIS, a prominent Jakarta think tank, wrote in an email that 
there has been a "harsh and hyper-nationalistic narrative along with the 
executions ... Indonesia and Jokowi in particular has lost much respect and 
moral standing."

The international pressure may have had an effect, however slight. The next 
group to be executed consists of 5 Indonesian men convicted of murder, rather 
than foreigners convicted of drug trafficking. Some speculate that the decision 
is meant to show the Indonesian government's commitment to following through 
with executions but without further alienating any foreign powers. According to 
Harsono, "The heat from the international outcry and the fact that it is 
against international law to execute drug traffickers," may have prompted the 
Indonesian government to "go domestic and to pursue murderers."

On Thursday, I spoke with Todung Mulya Lubis, a lawyer and longtime campaigner 
against Indonesia's use of the death penalty, who represented the 2 executed 
Australians. He said that it was "possible" that the execution of Indonesian 
murderers, rather than foreign traffickers, was a sign that the government was 
reconsidering, but added, "I cannot say that. It remains to be seen. It may 
just be that the other cases [of foreigners] are still [requiring] legal 
action."

Australian media focused relentlessly on its government's efforts to save Chan 
and Sukamaran. When it was clear they would be executed, the Australian press 
meticulously documented their final days, from Chan's last-minute marriage, to 
Sukaraman's final self-portrait, where he depicted himself with a hole in his 
chest, to the moment the 2 were led out of their prison, given the choice to 
stand or kneel, and shot through the heart.

After the executions, Lubis tweeted:

I failed. I lost.

I asked him how he was feeling.

"How do I feel? Gloomy, is the feeling that I have. I have never been so 
stressed, so depressed, with what's going on. Because I expected humanity would 
prevail. I expected a sense of justice. But that is not the case."

(source: New Republic)








PHILIPPINES:

Death penalty revival opposed



Senator Francis "Chiz" Escudero is keeping a firm stand against the 
reimposition of death penalty in the Philippines, expressing hope that the 
government will help in the global action to abolish death penalty as 
punishment for any crime.

Escudero said that it is the certainty of punishment that will deter criminals 
from plying their trade rather than the re-imposition of the death penalty.

At the same time, he urged the government to exhaust all legal means for the 
pardon or commutation of the death sentence on Mary Jane Veloso, who got a 
reprieve from the Indonesian government shortly before her scheduled execution 
along with 8 other people for drug-related crimes.

Escudero said there should be no let-up in the Philippines' efforts to save 
Veloso. "The same is true with other distressed Filipinos in the different 
parts of the world," he said.

There are about 13,000 to 14,000 distressed overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) 
languishing in prisons in various parts of the world, he said.

With this number, he pointed out that the "current P100 million budget 
allocated to DFA for legal assistance to OFWs is evidently not enough to reach 
to as many OFWs in need of assistance."

He said he believed that whether it's right or wrong and regardless of the 
victim, as long as 1 is a Filipino, he should be entitled to due process and 
should be protected by the foreign affairs department.

He likewise cautioned Filipinos who are bound for overseas work to be extra 
careful and be wary of people who may dupe them into transporting contrabands.

(source: Manila Standard Today)