Jakarta – Nearly 2,000 graft convicts are among more than 118,000 inmates across Indonesia gifted hefty sentence cuts in the observance of the nation's 70th independence anniversary on Monday.

Justice Minister Yasonna Laoly, who has long sought to go easy on graft convicts, denied that his office was handing out sentence cuts too generously, saying it was the right of every inmate, including the 1,938 graft convicts who saw their sentences slashed by up to three months.

"We [handed out] the remissions [...] based on the inmates' good behavior," Yasonna said in Jakarta on Monday.

"In Saudi Arabia, whenever the king celebrates his birthday, the prisoners are awarded with sentence cuts. The Indonesian government shouldn't be selfish, [prisoners here] also deserve remissions," he added.

There are 2,802 individuals in jail on corruption convictions, meaning most, though not all, received a sentence cut.

Among those whose requests for cuts were rejected are former Constitutional Court chief justice Akil Mochtar, former Banten governor Ratu Atut Choisiyah, and former Democratic Party politician Angelina Sondakh.

An official with the Justice Ministry's Directorate General of Corrections, Akbar Hadi, said all other eligible prisoners, except those serving life in prison and those on death row, received sentence cuts of up to three months. The cuts also allowed 5,682 inmates to be released.

Akbar said that among the aims of regular sentence cuts, handed out during major public holidays, was the need to address the severe overcrowding in Indonesian prisons.

"They can also have an opportunity to reintegrate into society and rejoin their families, as well as to refine their [personal] quality and behavior," he said.

Source: http://jakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/majority-graft-inmates-get-independence-day-sentence-cuts/