Thousands mourned, while hundreds of other ran amok in East Nusa Tenggara on Friday over the execution of the three men convicted of leading attacks on Muslims during the 2000 sectarian violence in the Central Sulawesi town of Poso. Meanwhile, many also felt relieved by their deaths in the belief that justice was finally being upheld.

Many more regretted the capital punishment given to Fabianus Tibo, Domingggus da Silva and Marianus Riwu, also known as the Poso three, and not because they were heroes or martyrs.

The three men had to die in the name of law, while so many questions concerning the circumstances of the bloodshed in Poso remain unanswered. The three have been laid to rest in their graves along with all the mysteries surrounding the massacre of nearly 200 Muslims during the prolonged sectarian conflict that hit the town a few years ago.

The executions will be remembered as part of the tragedies besetting the country's efforts to uphold justice for one reason: They took place while there was insufficient evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that the three uneducated men were the masterminds of the violence.

It was this dubiety that apparently prompted the Attorney General's Office to delay the executions twice, on March 31 and Aug. 12, apart from the arguments over whether the men had to die before a firing squad.

For sure the debate goes beyond the territory of human rights, in which the death sentence as a maximum form of punishment has been widely criticized. The controversy lies with whether justice was adequately served instead.

The lack of proof beyond reasonable doubt was the point made by a host of prominent figures who opposed to the execution, the first since President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono took office in October 2004. Under his predecessor Megawati Soekarnoputri, Indonesia executed three foreign nationals convicted of heroin smuggling within the last three months of her tenure.

Former president and Muslim figure Abdurrahman Wahid, dubbed a champion of democracy and tolerance, and others who stood against the executions warned the government of the miscarriage of justice in Tibo's case.

The case of Sengkon and Karta is another classic story of the miscarriage of justice in the country. The two modest people were sentenced to death in 1974 for premeditated murder. After 12 years in jail waiting for their executions, they found justice only after the real murderer confessed.

Only a few months ago, Bekasi resident Budi Harjono revealed a the nightmarish torture he suffered at the hands of police officers who forced him to admit to killing his own father in 2002. The police eventually arrested the real killer.

With corrupt practices apparently still common in the country's law enforcement and administration agencies, the miscarriage of justice is always a prime cause for concern.

The Poso three were just not as fortunate as Sengkon and Karta or Budi. The men testified that they were framed by 16 people, the names of whom have been passed on to the police for investigation. The Central Sulawesi Police has since launched an investigation into the "real" masterminds, but it has been fruitless so far. Until his replacement as the provincial police chief in mid-September, Brig. Gen. Oegroseno admitted to having found no clues that could lead to the whereabouts of the 16 men Tibo claimed orchestrated the bloodshed.

There was speculation that the execution of Tibo, Dominggus and Marianus came amid pressure from certain parties unhappy with the nationwide war on terror which happened to place Muslims under attack. If this is true, it will only mark a further setback in our law enforcement as political interests overrule legal considerations.

The controversial executions are yet further evidence of the country's formalistic law enforcement, in which a sense of justice is measured by procedure rather than substance. In the case of the Poso three, their executions were made possible as they had exhausted all legal measures available to escape capital punishment.

Sadly, it was the bureaucratic – many say corrupt – nature of the Indonesian legal system that has enabled a number of corruption convicts to sneak out of the country before the court verdicts leveled on them were executed.

On the heel of the Poso three's executions and other peculiarities in the country's law enforcement, it seems valid to question the government's commitment to serving justice.