Thirty-three countries and territories around the world had a death penalty for drug offences in 2012, including 13 where it was mandatory.1 Most of these are in south-east Asia and the Middle East, with the US a notable outlier in the Western world. As one of these jurisdictions, Indonesia should ensure its legal system is transparent, accountable, and procedurally fair in imposing optional death sentences on convicted drug offenders, but it does not.
Firstly, the impending execution of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukamaran raises questions about the hypocritical attitude of Indonesian President, Joko Widodo. The President ordered that no effort be spared and “that the state be involved in every legal case” to secure the release of more than 200 Indonesians facing legal execution around the world, according to Indonesian Foreign Affairs Minister, Retno Marsudi.2 Many of those are drug offenders like Chan and Sukamaran.3 A day later, the President told an audience of Islamic leaders that there would be no mercy for Chan, Sukamaran and around 50 other drug offenders on death row from around the world.4 Indonesian law requires the President make a clemency decision “after thoroughly considering the clemency application”.5 This was not done; instead a blanket statement followed the President’s election late last year to the effect that all drug traffickers on death row would be executed.6 This led to the Presidential decree denying them clemency, without so much as examining the case or giving reasons.
Secondly, Chan and Sukamaran’s former lawyer, Mr Muhammad Rifan, last week alleged there was ‘interference’ in the case when the two Australians were being sentenced.7 The pair’s new legal team claim the judges in the original trial offered to hand down jail for life instead of the death sentence, in exchange for cash.8
It is on these two grounds their duo’s legal team is basing an administrative challenge to the executions.9
The Indonesian President’s world view is not only hypocritical, but irksome given the practical considerations that capital punishment does not work as a deterrent, it could lead to a consumer boycott in affected countries, and potentially work at cross-purposes to his efforts to have his own nationals saved from execution.
Moreover, this case shows the legal limitations on the ability of the Australian government through its embassies to bring to heel a government that places more importance on nationalism and moral conservatism than on mercy and procedural fairness.
#BaliNine #QandA
Footnotes
- ‘Death Penalty for Drug Offences Global Overview 2012: Tipping the Scales for Abolition’, 27 Nov 2012, Harm Reduction International, Tipping the Scales for Abolition Documents the 33 Countries and Territories that Retain Death Penalty for Drug Offences (2012).
- ‘President Joko Widodo Pushes for Release of Indonesian Prisoners Overseas but no Clemency Granted to Foreigners’, The Sydney Morning Herald (Online), 16 Feb 2015 <http://www.smh.com.au/comment/smh-e...y-granted-to-foreigners-20150216-13f336.html>.
- Ibid.
- Ibid.
- Ibid.
- Ibid.
- ‘Bali Nine Judges Reportedly Seek Bribes’, Sky News (Online), 16 Feb 2015 < http://www.skynews.com.au/news/top-...ting-to-outline-bali-nine-duo-execution.html>.
- Ibid.
- Ibid.
