Jakarta – The Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation (LBH Jakarta) has said Indonesia's legal system is at risk of arbitrarily taking away people's right to life through capital punishment.
"The government's decision to delay the death sentence of Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso in the last minutes before her execution has shown that the implementation of Indonesia's legal system does not yet guarantee the rights of defendants and/or convicts," said LBH Jakarta public attorney Nelson Nikodemus Simamora as quoted by Antara in Jakarta on Thursday.
He further said a corrupt judicial system also created the risk of taking people's right to life arbitrarily. An executed death sentence could not be revoked if it is later proven that there had been a mistake in the court's ruling.
"What could we have done if Mary Jane was proven not guilty because her recruiter surrendered in the Philippines, but she had been executed with the seven other death row inmates?" asked Nelson.
The government executed eight prisoners early on Wednesday on the Nusakambangan prison island near Cilacap in Central Java.
The eight were Indonesian Zainal Abidin, Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, Brazilian Rodrigo Gularte, Nigerians Sylvester Obiekwe Nwolise, Raheem Agbaje Salami and Okwudili Oyatanze and Ghanaian Martin Anderson. Veloso was spared after a woman who allegedly recruited her to act as a drug courier gave himself up to police in the Philippines on Tuesday.
LBH Jakarta director Febi Yonesta said he very much regretted that the National Police had not provided legal assistance for Veloso during the compiling of the police interrogation report. Veloso had not been accompanied by a Tagalog translator either during her interrogations or her trial.
"Extending such legal assistance and a translator is stipulated by Article 56, 51 and 177, or the Criminal Code Procedures (KUHAP). It was a failure that led to unfair results," said Febi.
Veloso had not been able to defend herself optimally because of language-related obstacles and this might have ended in her death if her recruiter had not surrendered to Philippine authorities shortly before her execution. (ebf)
Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/04/30/ri-s-laws-pose-risk-taking-people-s-right-life.html