Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – The generous sentence remissions given to wealthy criminals on national holidays smack of corruption, activists said Friday.
Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) and the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) say the remissions are being bought and sold at the cost of the government's credibility.
However, Wibowo Djoko Hardjono, the warden of Cipinang Prison, where many high-profile convicts have been detained, denied the allegations and said sentence cuts were given based on strict requirements.
Emmerson Yanto, the coordinator of ICW's law and judicial monitoring section, said remissions had allowed many prisoners to walk free long before the sentences handed down to them by the courts expired. He questioned whether many high-profile convicts had been properly rehabilitated.
"Granting remissions is apparently based on how close convicts are with the chief wardens. Well-known convicts have easily obtained remissions not solely because of their good conduct but also because of these relationships," he told The Jakarta Post.
Emmerson noted former president Soeharto's youngest son Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, who is currently serving a 10-year sentence for murdering Supreme Court justice Syafiuddin Kartasasmita in 2000, received an 80-day remission at the 61st anniversary of Indonesian Independence on Aug. 17, 2006 and another 45 days during this week's Idul Fitri.
"In 2005, Tommy received a total of one year and 15 days remission (on his sentence). He has received similar cuts annually, which will allow him to walk free in a few years," he said.
Former Aceh governor Abdullah Puteh jailed for 10 years last year for corruption has also received big cuts to his jail time.
Meanwhile, former National Logistics Agency chief Rahardi Ramelan and former forestry minister Bob Hasan also received a series of sentence reductions for "good conduct" before they eventually walked free. "Rahardi received a remission for the first time on Aug. 17, 2005, only two days after he started serving his jail sentence," Emmerson said.
Kontras executive director Usman Hamid said the remissions were not transparent and hurt the public's sense of justice and the government's credibility. "The absence of an independent monitoring mechanism has made it easy for chiefs of correctional institutions to abuse their powers for money," he said.
He said the granting of many remissions to Tommy, who was initially sentenced to 15 years for ordering Syafiuddin's assassination, disappointed the victim's family. Later the Supreme Court reduced Tommy's sentence to 10 years on appeal without explaining the reason for the verdict.
If the Criminal Code had been properly applied, Tommy should have received a life sentence for the murder, Usman said.
Cipinang Prison chief warden Wibowo claimed no corruption was involved in granting remissions because they were given on a "strong legal basis".
"Remissions are granted to convicts who meet all the criteria as required by the 1995 Correctional Institutions Law and Presidential Decree No 174 on remissions. Only those complying with the correctional institution's internal rulings are eligible," he said.
He said all prisoners were regularly evaluated by a team of jailers and evaluation results were given to the justice minister to consider. High-profile convicts like Rahardi Ramelan, Bob Hasan and Tommy had generally set good examples to other prisoners when they served time, he said.