Jakarta – A legal think tank, the Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (ICJR), has called on the government to include a moratorium on the death penalty in its reform packages aimed at rejuvenating the country's legal system.
ICJR executive director Supriyadi Widodo Eddyono said a moratorium on capital punishment must be put in place if the government was serious about reforming the country's legal system, given that numerous executions, including that of drug trafficker Zainal Abidin in April last year, had been carried out without fair trials.
Zainal filed a case review in 2005 over the ruling on his execution with the Palembang District Court in South Sumatra. He had to wait 10 years, only to have the Supreme Court reject his appeal.
"President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo has to ask the Attorney General's Office [AGO] to stop handing down death sentences before the country's penal law system is reformed," Supriyadi said in a statement on Friday.
Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Minister Wiranto has announced a plan to issue legal reform packages that revolve around efforts to simplify overlapping regulations, to create more effective legal enforcement institutions and to improve legal culture.
Details of the reform packages, as well as their date of introduction, however, remain unclear.