Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – Legal experts strongly criticized on Monday the antiterrorism bill currently being formulated at the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, saying that the bill has condoned violence in its articles.
Asmara Nababan, secretary-general of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), urged the government to revoke the bill as it could violate someone's basic rights and Article 28 of the 1945 Constitution, which stipulates that someone must be treated humanely before the law.
"Even a suspect has non-derogative rights before investigators, which include representation by a lawyer; the right to communicate with family members; the right to remain silent; and the right to bail. "Should these rights is abolished by the government, we are creating a draconian law," Asmara told The Jakarta Post.
Following the September 11 terrorist attacks on the US, the Indonesian government began drafting an antiterrorism bill, which is expected to be finished this month to be handed over to the House of Representatives for deliberation. The formulation of the bill is in response to the US government's call to cut off funding sources from terrorist groups as stipulated in United Nations Security Council Resolution No. 1373.
One article of the bill, however, takes away a suspect's basic rights as it says that an alleged terrorist has no right: (a) to be represented by a lawyer; (b) to be silent before investigators; (c) to receive bail; (d) to communicate with people including his family.
Former director of the Foundation of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute (YLBHI) Bambang Widjojanto shared Asmara's views, saying that the government has been exploited by an outsider with its "own interests". "If we refer to the article, we realize that it adopts an unjust procedure within our legal system which actually had been dropped years ago," Bambang said. He further asserted that combating terrorism with violence would not solve the problem as "terrorism itself is the result of a system of injustice and violence."