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Munir’s Murderer Among Recipients of Sentence Cuts
Rizky Amelia & Antara | December 26, 2011

Human rights activists hold a poster of Munir Said Thalib during the International Human Right Day in Medan, North Sumatra, on Dec. 10, 2010. Munir was murdered aboard a Garuda plane en route to Amsterdam on Sept. 7, 2004. (Antara Photo) Human rights activists hold a poster of Munir Said Thalib during the International Human Right Day in Medan, North Sumatra, on Dec. 10, 2010. Munir was murdered aboard a Garuda plane en route to Amsterdam on Sept. 7, 2004. (Antara Photo)
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BajingLoncat
10:46pm Dec 26, 2011

Nasir Almi (not Nasr) is head of the West Java Justice and Human Rights Department. The head of the department's corrections division is Dedi Sutardi, who last week told Tempo that Pollycarpus was getting a Christmas remission of 1 month and 15 days. In August, Pollycarpus received an Independence Day remission of 9 months and 5 days.

Ronen
8:02pm Dec 26, 2011

I wonder how Indonesian authorities are defining TERRORISM. If killing innocent people in the name of any ideology is TERRORISM, then those who plan or kill Munir are TERRORISTS.

Likewise, those who plan and kill peaceful Indonesian Chinese, peaceful East Timorese, peaceful West Papuans and peaceful PKI followers were TERRORISTS too.

I guess Indonesia has Hottentot definition of Terrorism... something like: Any act of violence which not agreed by the legitimate authorities of Indonesia is considered as terrorism...


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Nearly 6,300 Christian inmates at prisons across the country received sentence cuts for Christmas this year, but the privilege was not extended to terrorism and corruption convicts, the Justice and Human Rights Ministry said on Sunday.

Sihabuddin, the ministry’s director general for corrections, said the restriction, initially detailed in a 2006 law, was enforced this year following a decision by Justice Minister Amir Syamsuddin in October.

“This year we’ve handed out remissions to 6,280 inmates who are Christian, but as per the justice minister’s decree, corruption and terrorism convicts have not been included,” Sihabuddin said.

Sentence cuts are typically handed out during major religious holidays to prisoners of that particular religion to recognize good behavior. The sentence reductions ranged from half a month to one and a half months.

Akbar Hadi, a spokesman for the Directorate General of Corrections, said 170 prisoners were eligible for release after receiving remissions exceeding the remainder of the time they had to serve.

“In the case of someone with just 20 days left to serve, for instance, if they get a one-month remission they’ll be allowed to go free,” he said.

In Bandung, an official confirmed that the sole individual convicted in the high-profile murder of human rights activist Munir Said Thalib was among those who received a remission.

Nasr Almi, the head of the provincial corrections department, said Pollycarpus Budihari Prijanto, the former Garuda Indonesia pilot who was convicted of spiking Munir’s drink with arsenic during a flight to Amsterdam in 2004, had his sentence cut, but he declined to say by how much.

Pollycarpus was convicted in 2005 of the murder and sentenced to 14 years in prison. However, the ruling was quashed by the Supreme Court a year later and he was released. Following an appeal by prosecutors on the basis of new evidence, he was once again convicted in 2008 and this time sentenced to 20 years. Prior to the latest round of remissions, he had received nine months in sentence cuts.

Nasr denied that Pollycarpus was being given special treatment through frequent and hefty remissions, saying the authorities were simply awarding him the reductions for which he was eligible. “If the rules state that he’s eligible for a remission, then he gets it. We’re just going by the rules,” he said.

Akbar said the idea was to reduce the nation’s prison population to ease overcrowding.

“The 428 penitentiaries and detention centers across the country are currently 147 percent over capacity,” he said. He added that although they were designed to hold a combined 96,500 inmates, they were now housing 142,300, including 3,300 juvenile offenders.

“Besides giving the prisoners an incentive to behave well, the practice of handing out remissions also plays an important role in helping ease overcrowding in prisons,” he said.