[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

April 28



PAKISTAN----executions

2 death row convicts hanged in Haripur----The dead bodies of the prisoners were 
handed to their heirs after execution.


2 death row convicts were hanged in the Central Jail Haripur on early Thursday 
morning, Dunya News reported. The dead bodies of the prisoners were handed over 
to their families after the execution.

According to details, death row convict Ali Raza was hanged for killing a man 
in 2004 while prisoner Farhad was executed for murdering a man in 1997.

6-year moratorium on death penalty was lifted on December 17, 2014 for those 
convicted for terrorism a day after the deadly attack on Army Public School in 
Peshawar that left 150 persons including mostly children dead. There are more 
than 8,000 prisoners on death row in the country.

(source: Dunya News)






INDONESIA:

A year after the Bali 9 executions, Indonesia prepares firing squads again ---- 
Deaths of 8 prisoners, including 2 Australians, prompted a huge outcry - and a 
pause in executions. But now foreigners on death row fear their own sentences 
could be just weeks away


There's chatter that it's on.

Talk that the death squad is at the ready; that a new, bigger execution ground 
is in the making. Officials say it could be just weeks away.

And after the circus last year, the security minister Luhut Panjaitan hopes 
there will be less "drama" this time around.

1 year after the international uproar and the diplomatic fallout over the 
execution of 8 drug traffickers - including 2 Australian men, Bali 9 pair 
Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran - it appears more executions could be on 
Indonesia's horizon this year. Among the foreigners on death row in Indonesia 
are 2 Britons, convicted drug smugglers Lindsay Sandiford and Gareth Cashmore.

"I still don't want to believe it," says lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis, who this 
time last year was fighting to save the lives of Chan and Sukumaran. "Yes, 
there will probably be a statement, but in the end I don't think there will be 
any executions. I refuse to believe it."

After 14 prisoners were executed at dawn in 2 separate rounds in early 2015, a 
3rd round has been on hold for the past year, ostensibly for economic reasons, 
but perhaps, in part, for political ones, too.

Yet after whatever fallout there might have been, Australia's recalled 
ambassador has returned (after a 5-week protest), and executions are back on 
the agenda.

This month, even as Indonesia was being booed at the United Nations for 
reiterating its support for the death penalty for drug offenders - a punitive 
action that runs counter to international law - the attorney general Muhammad 
Prasetyo indicated that another round would go ahead.

British prime minister David Cameron said he had raised the case of Sandiford - 
the English woman sentenced to death for smuggling almost 4kg of cocaine into 
Bali - during an official visit to Jakarta last year. But on Jokowi's return 
visit to London earlier this month, there were no indications that her case - 
or that of fellow death row Briton Gareth Cashmore - was revisited.

When questioned on the matter by German chancellor Angela Merkel on a recent 
visit to Berlin, Indonesian president Joko Widodo, or Jokowi, defended capital 
punishment as a justified approach to the country's "drug emergency".

There is nothing definitive yet, no date, and no official list of the next 
prisoners to face the firing squad: the Indonesian government is keeping its 
cards close to the chest. But some are still operating on the assumption that 
it is probably just a matter of time.

"The last information we received is that the attorney general has asked the 
parliament for the budget for the 3rd round," says Putri Kanesia, from the 
Jakarta-based human rights organisation Kontras. "But they should stop and 
evaluate the 1st and 2nd batch. There were a lot of unfair trials."

According to Amnesty International, there were at least 165 people on death row 
in Indonesia at the end of 2015, and more than 40% of those were sentenced for 
drug-related crimes. Indonesia has some of the harshest drug laws in the world, 
and Jokowi has stated that no drug prisoner will receive a pardon from him.

But the Kontras team is currently pushing to get the case details of one death 
row prisoner on to the president's desk.

Allegedly tortured in detention, and told by his lawyer that he did not have 
the right to appeal, Yusman Telaumbanua was, Kontras claims, a minor when the 
crime for which he was convicted was committed. This would make it illegal to 
execute him under Indonesian law.

"We learned from the experience of Mary Jane Veloso," explains Kanesia, 
referring to the last-minute - albeit temporary - reprieve granted by the 
president to the Filipino woman slated to be killed alongside Chan and 
Sukumaran a year ago.

"We have to give Jokowi information about unfair trials that led to the death 
penalty," she says. "Maybe we can make him think twice."

Fresh to the presidency, and to foreign affairs, some say Jokowi failed to 
anticipate the diplomatic blowback of signing off on the executions last year. 
The more the international community jumped up and down, the more the stakes 
were raised - and the harder it became for him to back out without looking 
weak.

The reality, and perhaps the uncomfortable truth for some looking in at 
Indonesia's drug policy, is that the executions generated strong support at 
home.

"I think the discourse around drug policy for Jokowi has always been and 
continues to be a very political, politically convenient decision," says 
Claudia Stoicescu, a doctoral researcher at Oxford University's centre for 
evidence-based intervention.

"He's seen a lot of support from Indonesians on this kind of punitive 
discourse, both in terms of drug policy, and this combative language with the 
war on drugs, but also with the death penalty."

Retrospectively, the lack of diplomatic finesse on the international stage did 
not do Chan or Sukumaran any favours.

"Some statements by [then] prime minister Tony Abbott and also foreign minister 
Julie Bishop, those probably should not have been made," Lubis, the Bali 9 
lawyer, told the Guardian during an interview at his Jakarta law firm. "Because 
that offends Indonesia - not only the government, but the Indonesian people. So 
it was very unfortunate."

When Abbott implied that Indonesia owed Australia "a favour" in return for the 
A$1bn donated in aid for the 2004 tsunami, angry Indonesians started a coin 
collection drive to "pay back" their neighbour. Plastic bags full of silver 
coins were later delivered to the embassy in Jakarta.

Other countries with citizens on Indonesia's death row have also been 
forthright in their opposition to Indonesia's use of firing squads. French 
president Francois Hollande said his government was "doing everything to keep 
Serge Atlaoui alive"; the Frenchman, accused of being the "chemist" for an 
ecstasy factory outside Jakarta, exhausted all legal appeals in mid-2015.

British prime minister David Cameron said he had raised the case of Sandiford, 
who was sentenced to death for smuggling almost 4kg of cocaine into Bali - 
during an official visit to Jakarta last year. But on Jokowi's return visit to 
London earlier this month, there were no indications that her case - or that of 
fellow death row Briton Cashmore - was revisited.

But a year on, and holding a stronger position in the parliament, it might not 
be as politically advantageous for Jokowi to conduct further executions in 
2016.

Lubis - who recently agreed to take on Sandiford's case - is optimistic that 
the president might be re-evaluating his hardline stance.

"Now I believe he understands the pressure, the criticisms. And that has 
probably made the attorney general a bit more cautious," he says, "Myuran 
Sukumaran and Andrew Chan were executed on 29 April last year, so this is going 
to be the 1st anniversary. So I guess they feel the heat."

But do they? The president and his government have continued their enthusiastic 
drug crusade, with Jokowi reiterating just weeks ago on the global stage that 
between 30and 50 Indonesians die each day because of drugs.

Last November, the head of the National Narcotics Agency, BNN, even 
outlandishly suggested that drug offenders should be placed on a prison island 
surrounded by crocodiles and piranhas.

Yet a look at the numbers shows that Indonesia might not be facing a drug 
emergency at all. According to the 2015 UNODC World Drug Report, Indonesia is 
on the lower end of the scale when it comes to drug usage around the region, 
and certainly ranks far lower than north America and Australia.

"No, there is certainly isn't an emergency," says Stoicescu, who has done the 
breakdown in her research. "In that sense, the way he [Jokowi] has used the 
numbers and the statistics has also been in a very selective, opportunistic 
way, to lend credibility to these political aims."

Professor Irwanto, a psychologist at Atma Jaya University in Jakarta, agrees 
the war on drugs talk is not only misguided, but counterproductive. The 
government, he argues, should shift its resources toward harm reduction, 
rehabilitation, and education, approaches that have helped countries with far 
worse drug problems than Indonesia.

Ultimately, there could be an escape from the death penalty for drug offenders, 
but it could come too late for most. A provision in the new draft of the 
Indonesian criminal code, which could allow for inmates to have their sentences 
commuted to life imprisonment if they are rehabilitated after 10 years, is 
currently awaiting debate by the Indonesian parliament.

The new draft is a so-called "priority" bill, but given the house of 
representatives managed to pass only 3 laws in total in 2015, it is likely to 
be years before it is even discussed.

That Chan and Sukumaran were rehabilitated failed to save them, but a year on, 
Lubis is still grappling with why they were killed at all.

"I still, you know, find it difficult to reconcile with myself because I know 
they were changed. They became very reformed people. So they did not deserve to 
die," he says.

"So I am still struggling to have peace with myself."

(source: The Guardian)

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

Memories of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran can help us fight the death 
penalty ---- Immense public support surrounded the Mercy Campaign's effort to 
save 2 Australians from death row. We can't let the lessons learnt from that go 
to waste


A year on, people still approach me to talk about what they were doing and how 
they were feeling the night of the Indonesian executions.

The partner of an accounting firm told me how he couldn't sleep that night, and 
spent until dawn watching Sky news and crying.

A mobile phone wholesaler in Melbourne jumped on a last minute flight to Sydney 
because he heard there was a vigil in Martin Place and he wanted to be around 
people who cared.

Others - whose churchgoing habits were dusty - found themselves praying.

On the Mercy Campaign Facebook page, conversations went on through the night: 
"I can't believe this is actually happening" or "I can't believe how affected I 
am by this".

For the 1st part of last year, it felt like the executions were all anyone 
could talk about. Would Indonesia do it? Could Australia intervene? Should 
Australia intervene? Did the "Bali 9" pair Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan 
deserve it?

There was an emotional tenor that ran through the debate that marked it as 
different from other issues. Both Julie Bishop and Tanya Plibersek were at 
their most compassionate and eloquent when speaking about the death penalty in 
parliament.

People signed petitions (the Mercy Campaign collected 250,000 signatures), 
attended vigils, wrote to the Indonesian president directly, begging that 
Chan's and Sukumaran's lives be spared. Thousands of songs, pieces of artwork, 
poems and videos were created pleading for mercy. We used to post them on the 
campaign Facebook page, but towards the end there were so many that we couldn't 
keep track.

And yet ...

A year ago 8 men - among them the Australians Chan and Sukumaran - were killed 
by firing squad in Indonesia, while their families kept vigil on the mainland, 
close enough to hear the gunshots.

After the sound came the fury. Australia withdrew its ambassador to Indonesia, 
foreign minister Julie Bishop did not rule out reducing Australia's foreign aid 
to Indonesia then-prime minister Tony Abbott also didn't mince words:

We respect Indonesia's sovereignty, but we do deplore what's been done and this 
cannot be simply business as usual.

Then a lull.

No one else has been killed by firing squad in Indonesia, although plenty 
remain on death row. The global outpouring of condemnation surely played a part 
in this but that hasn't been the local rationale.

Earlier this year, Indonesian media reported that economic concerns over the 
executions had lead to an unofficial moratorium but this is cold comfort. 
Unless there is a total abolition of the death penalty in Indonesia, those on 
death row are vulnerable to sudden announcements about executions - the 
government needs to give only 3 days notice for an execution.

So it could happen again, and rumours are that it could happen soon. It's 
already happening - all the time - in the United States, Vietnam, China, Japan, 
Yemen, Egypt, India, North Korea, Malaysia just to name a few.

Australians have shown they can organise and unite en masse against the death 
penalty when their citizens are at risk of being executed (Indonesia has shown 
the same capacity when its citizens are subject to the death penalty abroad). 
It was Chan's and Sukumaran's wish that the fight against the death penalty 
continue regardless of the outcome of their own clemency plea.

Here are some of the lessons we learnt from the Mercy Campaign.

Empathy is crucial

Sukumaran, Chan and their families were leading the news bulletins for more 
than 50 days from the end of 2014 to their deaths in April 2015. The more we 
heard their story - about the work they were doing in prison, about the 
community they built in Kerobokan, about their rehabilitation - the more 
difficult it was to cold-heartedly dismiss their plight.

Many people commenting on the Mercy Campaign Facebook page would often say, "I 
feel like I know them."

The media has power

There was little empathy for Sukumaran and Chan in the early days of their 
incarceration when News Corp media assigned them cartoonish monikers of the 
Enforcer and the Kingpin. That proved a hard perception to shake. When 
journalist Mark Davis gained access to Kerobokan he asked them about this tag. 
They both burst out laughing at the absurdity of it.

What drug kingpin drives a second hand car and lives with his parents, asked 
Andrew.

In the end, Chan and Sukumaran's executions stung Indonesia's economy, not its 
conscience

Sukumaran told The Monthly: "I'm still looking for my 'green Mercedes' and my 
'many girlfriends'."

Yet coverage of Myuran and Andrew in News Corp papers shifted markedly in the 
final years of their lives. The Courier-Mail published a powerful editorial in 
January 2015 denouncing the executions and The Australian ran a compelling 
front page with every living prime minister pleading with the Indonesian 
president for mercy. News Corp's stance had well and truly softened and public 
opinion followed. By the end of their lives, some of the most compassionate 
pieces of journalism about Sukumaran and Chan were written by News Corp 
journalists.

The clemency movement is diverse

The Catholic church has had a long and noble tradition in this country in 
taking the lead in activism on death penalty cases, from Ronald Ryan to Van 
Nguyen. This time, while there was support from institutions such as the 
Australian Catholic University and regular vigils at churches in Melbourne, 
other groups and individuals from vastly different spheres stepped up and 
became very powerful advocates for clemency.

Supporters for clemency included the artist Ben Quilty, musicians such as 
Temper Trap and the Presets, broadcaster Alan Jones, the legal community - 
particularly in Melbourne - some unions, and clergy from a variety of faiths, 
including Christian and Muslim.

It was an incredible coalition of people from both the left and right, and 
everything in between. The apolitical nature of the campaign and this diversity 
and made the movement for clemency inclusive and stronger.

Politicians showed leadership - and that matters

There are so many pressing social issues - such as treatment of asylum seekers 
- where there is no leadership from the ruling party, and also no dissent from 
the opposition. Yet last year, support for clemency was bi-partisan, sending a 
strong message that Australia does not support the death penalty, either here 
or abroad.

A year on, and now our politicians - indeed all of us that deplored the 
executions in Indonesia - need to keep fighting to ensure that it doesn't 
happen again.

(source: Opinion, Brigid Delaney (Brigid Delaney was a co-founder of the Mercy 
Campaign); The Guardian)

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

Indonesia executions 1 year on: Mary Jane lives but death penalty questions 
linge----It has been 1 year since Filipina Mary Jane's reprieve and the 
execution of 8 others. What's the situation now?


The anguished cry of a sister about to lose her brother, dust clouds kicked up 
by dozens of reporters and police, and the heavy sensation of dread.

These stand out in my memory of April 28 last year, the day before Indonesia 
executed 8 people on Nusakambangan, Central Java, for drug offenses.

Incongruous in the chaos were 2 little boys, Mark Darren and Mark Daniel, the 
sons of Filipina Mary Jane Veloso.

Aged 6 and 12, they were told to say their last goodbyes to their mother before 
she "went to heaven."

That night, Veloso, 30, was taken from her cell and was walking to the firing 
squad when she was pulled back, granted a temporary reprieve.

In a dramatic turn, the woman who allegedly recruited Veloso had surrendered to 
police. The single mother had always argued she was duped into carrying 2.6kg 
of heroin into Indonesia in 2009.

Shots heard after midnight signaled the firing squad had done its grim work. 
But at Cilacap port, we were in the dark about Veloso's fate.

I sent a text message to her attorney. I've heard a rumor. Is Mary Jane alive?

Edre Olalia's ecstatic reply came: "YES!!!!!"

Recruiters on trial

Maria Cristina Sergio and Julis Lacanilao, the couple accused of setting up 
Veloso, are finally on trial after protracted pre-trial legal arguments.

Olalia says this case and others expose the great danger that innocent people 
will be executed because of errors.

Criminal justice systems everywhere are imperfect, he says. They are 
complicated, confusing and corruptible.

"In countries that impose the death penalty, we know as a fact there can be 
mistakes," he says.

"We know also the system is very prejudiced against those who have no power, 
who have no influence or wealth."

Veloso will have the chance to tell her story at this trial. At her 2010 trial 
in Indonesia, she was not provided a qualified translator.

Discussions between Manila and Jakarta continue to determine how her testimony 
will be presented.

The death penalty was abolished in the Philippines in 1986, reintroduced in 
1993 and suspended again in 2006.

2 presidential candidates - Rodrigo Duterte and Grace Poe, are in favor of 
returning capital punishment.

Olalia says this is a populist stance that ignores policy approaches that 
actually work.

However, looking at the root causes of criminality and strengthening 
investigative bodies don't grab headlines.

"Crimes must be punished and people must be held accountable, but we will not 
solve a problem by presenting another problem," he says.

Indonesia's stance

Indonesia argues its death penalty is not only for those who commit the most 
serious crimes - drug trafficking, terrorism, murder and treason - but as a 
warning to future perpetrators.

However there's still no evidence the death penalty deters drug crime.

Lawyer Ricky Gunawan has just returned from the UN General Assembly Special 
Session on drugs, where he gave an impassioned plea to end the death penalty.

"We are going nowhere with drug policy," he says. "Indonesia is still using the 
old punitive measures which have not resulted in any positive difference."

Gunawan, of LBH Masyarakat (Community Legal Aid Institute), says the annual 
report of the BNN (National Narcotics Agency) itself shows the continued rise 
of drug crimes.

But instead of changing tactics, BNN chief Budi Waseso wants more regular 
executions.

On April 7, 10 foreign drug convicts' names were reported in the media, 
supposedly the next candidates for executions.

Attorney General HM Prasetyo was quoted as saying he was only waiting for their 
final legal appeals and better weather.

His spokesman later told Australia's ABC he was only joking.

Eventually, Indonesia's lawmakers will debate a revision of the criminal code 
that would see a death sentence commuted to life or 20 years' jail after 10 
years of good behavior.

"This would be good because we know many death row prisoners, after 10 years' 
imprisonment, show change," Gunawan says.

"It's difficult, politically, to see Indonesia abolishing the death penalty 
now, but this would be a good compromise."

Chan and Sukumaran

The story of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran rallied the support of many 
Australians.

Chan had transformed from Bali 9 drug smuggler to pastor within 10 years, while 
Sukumaran dedicated himself to becoming an accomplished painter.

After legal, diplomatic and community appeals failed to save the reformed pair 
from execution, many questioned whether Australia shouldn???t be a more 
consistent and louder voice against the death penalty worldwide.

A parliamentary committee has been considering how Australia's government can 
improve its advocacy.

Julian McMahon, who was a lawyer for Chan and Sukumaran, now serves as 
president for Reprieve Australia.

"The Chan-Sukumaran case asked not only the public, but also the Australian 
parliament, to take a firm position on the death penalty," he says.

"Opposition to more executions anywhere is the only acceptable position for a 
government.

"In my opinion, they're doing it well now. Having said that, there's obviously 
a lot more to be done.

"A number of nations who are great friends of Australia have taken backward 
steps in recent weeks."

Not only is Indonesia openly discussing more executions, but Japan and Malaysia 
have conducted secretive executions. Death penalty Malaysia is moving towards 
reform of its mandatory death penalty for some drug crimes, with proposed 
amendments anticipated to be introduced to parliament in May. But last month it 
sent 3 men to the gallows, giving their families only 2 days' notice the 
decade-old sentence for murder would be carried out.

Meanwhile, a Malaysian man is set to be hung in Singapore, after his final 
appeal was quashed.

Kho Jabing was sentenced to death in 2010 for killing a Chinese worker in a 
robbery.

There have been talks between the 2 governments concerning the 31-year-old, but 
Malaysia finds itself in the difficult position of asking for its citizen to be 
spared death while its own justice system executes.

Amnesty International reports 2015 was the worst year in a quarter of a century 
for the death penalty.

At least 1,634 people were put to death last year, 90 % of them in 3 countries: 
Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

The figures exclude China, where it's believed thousands are executed each year 
in secret.

Amnesty International Malaysia's Shamini Darshni says the rational arguments 
against the death penalty endure.

"The death penalty is a very emotional argument but we have so much research to 
show it doesn't actually prevent crimes, prevent future crimes or help the 
crime rate, and it robs a prisoner of the chance for rehabilitation," she says.


--

The 8 people executed on April 29, 2015

Andrew Chan, Australia - a member of the Bali 9 drug smugglers. In his decade 
of imprisonment he became a pastor and helped many fellow inmates through 
counselling.

Myuran Sukumaran, Australia - dubbed a ringleader of the Bali 9 along with 
Chan, he became an accomplished painter behind bars and helped inmates find 
purpose and skills through art programs.

Rodrigo Gularte, Brazil - executed despite being twice diagnosed with 
schizophrenia. Arrested at Jakarta airport in 2004 with 6kg of cocaine, Gularte 
did not understand he was going to be executed until the final moments.

Martin Anderson, Nigeria - arrested in Jakarta in 2003 for possessing about 1.8 
ounces of heroin. Police shot him in the leg during his arrest and the injury 
troubled him for his remaining years.

Okwuduli Oyatanze, Nigeria - sentenced to death in 2002 for attempting to bring 
2.5kg of heroin through Jakarta in capsules inside his stomach. He was a gospel 
singer whose deep Christian faith touched many who met him.

Raheem Salami, Nigeria - was homeless in Bangkok when he was offered $400 to 
take a package of clothes to Indonesia. He was arrested in Surabaya with 5.5kg 
of heroin and originally sentenced to life in prison in 1999.

Silvester Obiekwe Nwolise, Nigeria - convicted in 2002 of smuggling just over a 
kilogram of heroin into Indonesia. He was lured to Pakistan with the promise of 
work, but instead offered the task of flying to Indonesia with what he thought 
were capsules of goat horn powder.

Zainal Abidin, Indonesia - A laborer from Palembang, Abidin was transferred for 
execution despite having a live judicial appeal. 2 men convicted with Abidin, 
who he claimed were the masterminds of a plot to sell marijuana, served prison 
sentences and were released.

(source: rappler.com)

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

Brits facing death by firing squad in Indonesia could be executed 'within 
weeks'----Lindsay Sandiford and Gareth Cashmore have been sentenced to death by 
firing squad


2 Brits are among those thought to be executed in Indonesia by firing squad 
'within weeks' - a year after the country caused international outrage after 
killing 8 men.

Foreigners on death row in Indonesia fear that the execution of their sentences 
could be just weeks away, The Guardian reports.

Last April, the country was widely condemned after a group of prisoners was 
executed after midnight on Nusakambangan Island - including Australian men 
Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, Brazilian Rodrigo Gularte, Nigerian men 
Martin Anderson, Sylvester Nwolise, Okwudili Oyatanze and Raheem Salami, and 
Indonesian Zainal Badarudin.

Officials said the prisoners were to be given the choice to stand, kneel or sit 
before the firing squad, and to be blindfolded. Their hands and feet were to be 
tied.

Another round of executions has been on hold since then.

But Brits Lindsay Sandiford, from Teeside, and Gareth Cashmore, from Yorkshire, 
are among those now facing death after being convicted of drug smuggling.

No official date or list of the prisoners facing death by firing squad has yet 
been released by Indonesia.

"I still don't want to believe it," lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis - who last year 
was fighting to save Chan and Sukumaran - told The Guardian.

"Yes, there will probably be a statement, but in the end I don't think there 
will be any executions. I refuse to believe it."

According to Amnesty International, 27 people were executed in Indonesia 
between 1999 and 2014, with no executions carried out between 2009 and 2012.

The organisation has said there were at least 121 people on death row as of 
April 2015, including 54 people convicted of drug-related crimes, 2 on 
terrorism charges and 65 convicted of murder.

(source: The Independent)

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

Lawyer condemns move


A Myrtleford lawyer who acted for Bali drug smugglers Andrew Chan and Myuran 
Sukumaran has expressed her disgust at the impending resumption of executions.

Veronica Haccou said she was "very, very concerned" that Indonesia was planning 
to kill 14 prisoners at once.

Speaking on the eve of the 12-month anniversary of the pair's execution, Haccou 
said she accepted the death penalty was a "very contested topic".

"But at the end of the day if we say that no one has the right to take another 
person's life, then especially where the justice system is far from perfect 
then there must be other ways to impose appropriate punishment."

Ms Haccou is continuing to fight for the abolition of the death penalty as a 
board member of Reprieve Australia.

Chan, 31, and Sukumaran, 34, were shot dead on the prison island of 
Nusakambangan, along with 6 other prisoners, on April 29, 2015.

Ms Haccou helped them for 8 years alongside notable Melbourne human rights 
lawyer Julian McMahon.

Ms Haccou said education played a key role in trying to abolish the death 
penalty, especially through helping young Indonesians understand their 
country???s obligations under international law.

"12 months ago on Anzac Day was the date the death warrants were read out to 
both of the boys," she said.

"They were very dignified, very polite, but also they were there to tell the 
truth in terms of they didn't agree the punishment was appropriate given how 
they had been rehabilitated."

While the anniversary was a "very, very, very tough period of time" this did 
not mean "we don't respect the families of victims of drug crimes. Of course we 
do.

"But we are talking about 2 young men who made a really, really bad mistake 
when they were 21 and 24," she said.

"They were in prison for 10 years and during that time they went ahead in leaps 
and bounds.

"They had turned themselves from being criminals - there's no other way of 
saying it - to rehabilitated young men who made a difference to others around 
them."

(source: The Border Mail)

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

Prisoners on death row in Indonesia could be saved under proposed law 
change----Death row prisoners in Indonesia may in the future have an avenue for 
a reprieve.


A groundbreaking new penal code that would allow for prisoners on death row in 
Indonesia to have their sentences commuted to a jail term could be passed as 
early as next year, according to the country's justice minister.

This could save the lives of some of the estimated 180 people sentenced to 
death in Indonesia - if they could demonstrate they had reformed after 10 years 
behind bars.

Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly told Fairfax Media he hoped the new 
draft of the criminal code would be passed by Parliament next year.

"Under the revision of the penal code we are doing now, we want the death 
penalty to still be there, but it can be changed, commuted," Mr Yasonna said.

"If possible we would like to finish it up next year. The progress looks good."

Mr Yasonna's comments come on the eve of the 1st anniversary of the execution 
of 8 drug offenders, including Bali 9 co-ordinators Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew 
Chan.

President Joko Widodo refused to grant the Australians clemency, despite their 
well-documented reform and rehabilitation, including Chan becoming a pastor and 
Sukumaran establishing art and computer classes for inmates at Bali's Kerobokan 
jail.

After a year-long break from executions - which government ministers attributed 
to the weak economy - prison authorities have been ordered to prepare for a 
fresh round on Nusakambangan, known as Indonesia's Alcatraz.

The timing of the executions and the names and nationalities of those who will 
face the firing squad have not yet been disclosed.

However Fairfax Media has been told they are likely to be Indonesians after the 
international outcry following the 2 rounds of executions last year, when 12 of 
the 14 killed were foreigners.

Chief Security Minister Luhut Panjaitan said Indonesia wanted to avoid the 
"soap opera" surrounding last year's executions.

He said this time only 3 days' notice of the timing would be given, as 
stipulated under Indonesian law.

Last year's April 29 executions became a circus, with Chan and Sukumaran flown 
to the island where they were executed accompanied by 2 Sukhoi fighter jets.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said at the time she couldn't comprehend the 
dramatic display of military might, given the pair had never done anything to 
suggest they were violent.

Chan and Sukumaran's Indonesian lawyer, Todung Mulya Lubis, told Fairfax Media 
the international pressure could not be underestimated.

He said a draft of the revised penal code, which included the option to commute 
the death penalty, had been submitted to Parliament late last year.

"I think the government expedited the submission of this draft criminal code 
partly because of the death penalty protest," Dr Todung said.

"They want to find a way to answer the criticism of the human rights community. 
I think Andrew and Myuran contributed to the expedition of the whole process."

However Dr Todung pointed out the low success rate in Parliament passing bills 
and said he believed it would take Parliament more than a year to deliberate 
the draft criminal code.

Putri Kanesia, from Jakarta-based human rights organisation Kontras, said she 
was pessimistic about the new penal code, given it had been in the pipeline for 
many years.

In 2007, the Indonesian Constitutional Court upheld the validity of the death 
penalty, but also recommended that a death-row prisoner who showed 
rehabilitation after 10 years have their sentence commuted to imprisonment.

The Indonesian President, Mr Joko, again defended the death penalty during a 
visit to Europe this month, saying Indonesia was at an emergency level in the 
war against drugs.

Mr Joko's "position on death for drugs is a genuine one" but also boosts his 
political popularity, says Tim Lindsey, director of Indonesian law, Islam and 
Society at the University of Melbourne's Law School.

Certainly, the legal team for Chan and Sukumaran saw Mr Joko's stance as 
pivotal to their failure to succeed in the final weeks of their lives to get 
Indonesia's Judicial Commission to investigate claims by the duo's former 
lawyer, Mohammad Rifan, that judges and prosecutors asked for bribes to commute 
their death sentence to 20 years during their 1st trial.

The commission, a nominally independent body that examines the probity of 
judges, refused to summon the Bali 9 pair for interviews even though they were 
key witnesses to the bribery and had provided statements.

"They admitted it would be really, really hard for them to be interviewed," 
said one senior member of the Indonesian legal team. "They said the President, 
the executive, the lawmakers were united in performing the executions. They 
essentially said it was too bad."

Right up until just hours before their execution, lawyers, eminent Indonesians, 
diplomats and others were beseeching the chair of the Judicial Commission, 
Marzuki Supraman, to intervene, to no avail.

"While there are many in civil society and government who oppose executions - 
even in cabinet - many law enforcement officials, with an eye to promotion, 
appointment, extension of tenure, now seem reluctant to take a stand against 
the President's position," said Professor Lindsey.

"Many think this explains the Judicial Commission's shameful reluctance to call 
on the government to halt the executions of Sukumaran and Chan, at least until 
they had a chance to give evidence about the allegations of corruption by 
judges in their original trial - allegations that, if proven, might well have 
led to them avoiding the firing squad."

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

Threat to Bali 9's Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran's legacy upsets families


As the families of Bali nine duo Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran? struggle 
with the anniversary of their execution, news that 2 Iranian inmates entrusted 
with their legacy have been suddenly shifted from Kerobokan prison has added to 
their anguish.

Ali Reza Safar Khanloo? and Rouhallah Series Abadi? were among 63 prisoners 
moved this week from the Bali prison that was home to Chan and Sukumaran for 
more than a decade, part of a cohort judged to be "emotionally easy to provoke 
and who caused disturbances".

"It's pretty upsetting," said Andrew Chan's brother Michael. "Knowing those 2 
Iranian boys are going ... there, pretty much, goes the painting studio and 
BengKer [workshop] as well."

The workshop, housed in an building that had previously been used by inmates to 
manufacture the drug ecstasy, has long been at the heart of the Bali nine 
pair's rehabilitation programs.

Used initially to conduct computer training classes, the space later morphed 
into an art and craft studio, with inmates undertaking painting, jewellery 
making and T-shirt printing.

Ali and Rouhallah, also known as Rahol, oversaw the facility after the death of 
the Australians.

Chan and Sukumaran were killed in the early hours of April 29 last year. 
Michael Chan says the emotions are raw. "This week has been tough," he says.

The family will mark the anniversary on Friday with a quiet "get-together" at 
their Sydney home. Andrew Chan's wife Febyanti Herewila - they married on the 
eve of the execution - has flown in for the occasion.

Like Michael Chan, she is disturbed that Indonesia has announced it will end a 
moratorium on executions since the pair were killed alongside 6 other drug 
traffickers a year ago.

"What is Andrew's legacy? Of course, the 1st one is to abolish the death 
penalty," she said in comments posted on the website of Reprieve, an anti-death 
penalty group.

"Andrew wants the young people from around the world to learn from his life, 
Whatever decisions you make today will determine your future."

Andrew Chan was an obsessive rugby league supporter and devoted fan of the 
Penrith Panthers.

Now the season is in full swing, his brother - a Canterbury Bulldogs fan - says 
his absence has hit home.

"I miss the good old banter we used to have," he says. "This time of year, he'd 
be telling me how good his team is. I'd be telling him how shit his team is."

The Sukumaran clan remains deeply wounded by the loss of Myuran and, according 
to family friends distressed at the precarious future of the Kerobokan 
workshop.

A church service will be held for Myuran Sukumaran on Saturday.

Next year an exhibition of his artwork, curated by his painting mentor Ben 
Quilty, will be held.

(source for both: Sydney Morning Herald)