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Joko Widodo says abolishing death penalty possible, but not for a 'long time'
Sydney Morning Herald - March 8, 2015
Mr Joko made the remarks in an interview with Al Jazeera but otherwise defended his plans to kill drug traffickers, including Australian men Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran.
The organisers of the Bali nine smuggling syndicate have been awaiting execution on Nuskambangan since Wednesday, and will get see their families for the first time on Monday in what will be an emotional reunion.
This week, their legal appeal, along with several other death row inmates, will be heard after the spokesman for the country's attorney general flagged a delay in the executions, saying they may not happen this month.
Mr Joko's remarks about a future ban on the death penalty are surprising and are still being digested by supporters for the Australians.
"The Constitution and existing laws still allow [the death penalty] but in the future if it is necessary to change it and [if] the people really want it, why not?" Mr Joko said in the interview, broadcast in full on Saturday.
"I think we want to listen to what people want first. It's still a long time to go through and I do not want to talk about the issue now."
Indonesian diplomats reportedly told a United Nations seminar in Geneva last week that a moratorium was possible in the future. However, its foreign minister Retno Marudi later denied this had happened.
Polls show strong support for the death penalty in Indonesia, with approval running at 70 per cent or higher.
However, Indonesia halted executions for more than four years during the presidency of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, helping it save some 200 of its own citizens on death row overseas during that period.
In rejecting the clemency appeals of the Bali nine drug offenders and others on death row, Mr Joko said he considered the amount of drugs that had been distributed.
"When I rejected clemency I took into consideration how many drugs they smuggled, how many pills they distributed.... The court has sentenced them and we cannot discriminate between countries."
The Bali nine smuggling ring was bringing 8.3 kilos of heroin to Australia, not Indonesia.
Another condemned man slated to be executed alongside the Australian pair, Ghanaian Martin Anderson (alias Belo), was caught with just 50 grams of heroin in 2003.
Mr Joko said the country was facing a drugs "emergency". He said there were 4.5 million people in drug rehabilitation programs and "at least 1.5 million people who cannot be cured".
"This is the picture of Indonesia's future, our next generation. We want to send a strong message to drug smugglers that Indonesia is firm and serious in tackling the drug problem and one of the consequences is execution," he said.
"Most importantly, our diplomats can explain to other countries the urgency of our drug problem in Indonesia. Explain to them about the conditions here, that drugs are entering villages, ruining our young ones, are being sold at campuses. Even universities have drug problems. This is an emergency."
Of those to be killed alongside Chan and Sukumaran, nine are foreigners. The mass executions have sparked diplomatic protests from Australia, France, Nigeria and the Philippines.
On Friday, Indonesia's attorney-general announced a delay in the executions as legal appeals were heard and preparations finalised at Nusakambangan, the penal island where the executions are to take place.
At least five the 10 condemned have legal appeals in the works. Chan and Sukumaran's appeal to the state administrative court will be heard in Jakarta on Thursday.
It will be their second attempt to challenge the rejection of their clemency petition by Mr Joko. The first challenge failed after the same court determined it had no jurisdiction over presidential decrees.
Indonesia's judicial commission is also investigating allegations that the judges who sentenced them to death asked for bribes in exchange for a more lenient sentence.
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