Jakarta – Jakarta-based rights group Community Legal Aid Institute (LBH Masyarakat) has urged the Attorney General's Office (AGO) to stop all preparations for a fourth round of executions under the President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo administration.

The group also said the office must desist in its efforts to get the Supreme Court to overrule a Constitutional Court ruling that removed time limits for the submission of a presidential pardon request.

"Amid muddled law enforcement in Indonesia, it seems the attorney general (M.Prasetyo) wants to appear heroic by executing death row inmates. In fact, the AGO has long shown a lack of achievements," said LBH Masyarakat director Ricky Gunawan in a statement on Saturday.

He was responding to media reports that the AGO was making preparations to execute 12 death row convicts.

"In the last two and a half years, the AGO has not produced any achievements of which it can be proud. The planned executions are no more than cosmetic to cover up its poor performance in enforcing the law and human rights," Ricky said.

Last month, the Indonesian Ombudsman stated the AGO had committed several law violations in the third round of executions in April 2016. The four inmates executed comprised drug kingpin Freddy Budiman, Senegal national Seck Osmane and Nigerian nationals Humphrey Ejike and Michael Titus Igweh.

Ricky said the AGO should first fix the procedure for executions. "Instead, the AGO has continued its execution plan," he said. (yon/ebf)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2017/08/28/ago-urged-to-stop-execution-preparations.html