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Amnesty International condemns third round of executions
Jakarta Globe - July 27, 2016
Amnesty International made this statement in light of recent reports that several death-row inmates have been moved to the notorious Nusakambangan Prison in Central Java. At least 14 death-row inmates have been confined on the notorious execution island since Sunday evening, including ten foreign nationals.
It is generally understood that death-row inmates are moved to Nusakambangan Island days before they are executed by firing squad. They are held in isolation and receive counseling from religious guides, while the government fulfills their last wishes.
Josef Benedict, Amnesty International's director of campaigns for Southeast Asia and Pacific, said the organization is concerned that some of the prisoners facing the firing squad were convicted in manifestly unfair trials and have not yet exhausted all avenues of appeal, including submitting a clemency request to the president.
"President [Jokowi's] era was supposed to represent a new start for human rights in Indonesia. Sadly, he could preside over the highest number of executions in the country's democratic era at a time when most of the world has turned its back on this cruel practice," Benedict said in a statement on Wednesday.
In a report published last year, Amnesty found that in 12 cases defendants were denied access to legal counsel at the time of their arrest and at interval periods thereafter. Some claimed they were subject to torture and other ill-treatment while in police custody and were forced to "confess" to their alleged crimes. However, allegations of torture and forced confessions were reportedly never investigated further by the authorities.
According to Amnesty, Pakistani authorities have called on their Indonesian counterparts to halt the execution of Zulkifar Ali, a Pakistani national and textile worker, who had reportedly described how he was tortured in custody and spent more than a decade on death row for a drug offence.
During his pre-trial detention, he was reportedly refused the right to contact his embassy and was not permitted any access to a lawyer until approximately one month after his arrest.
"As the case of Zulkifar Ali shows, international law has been repeatedly violated in death penalty cases, from the time of arrest to trial and at the [appellate] stage. Regardless of what we think of the death penalty, no one must have their life decided on the basis of such flawed proceedings," Benedict said in the statement.
It appears that limited access to legal aid also occurred in the case of fellow death row inmate Merry Utami, a 42-year-old Indonesian woman who was sentenced to death in 2003 after being arrested at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport and found in possession of 1.1 kilograms of heroin.
Adriana Venny of the National Commission on Violence Against Women, or Komnas Perempuan, said Merry and her lawyers are still in the process of requesting a pardon from President Jokowi as the copy of the 2014 Supreme Court ruling was delivered only days before Merry was moved to Nusakambangan Prison.
Last year, despite repeated pleas for mercy from foreign governments and international organizations, Indonesia executed 14 people for drug trafficking – among them citizens of Australia, Brazil, the Netherlands and Nigeria.
Only Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso of the Philippines received a stay of execution last year after Maria Kristina Sergio, who allegedly planted drugs in Veloso's luggage, gave herself up to that country's police. Veloso will not be in the next round of executions.
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