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Indonesia President Susilo B. Yudhoyono |
Legislators have called on the government to assist in the case of two Indonesian brothers sentenced to death last year in Malaysia for killing a burglar who broke into their home, after their appeal was rejected earlier this week.
Nova Riyanti Yusuf, a deputy chairwoman of House of Representatives Commission IX, which oversees welfare labor affairs, said on Friday that legislators would call in the foreign minister, the manpower minister and the Indonesian ambassador to Malaysia to account for the legal assistance they had provided to Frans Hiu, 22, and Dharry Frully Hiu, 21.
“Commission IX will ask the officials responsible for a written report on the developments in the case so far and the effectiveness of efforts by the Indonesian government to assist the two men,” said Nova, from the Democratic Party.
The brothers from Pontianak, West Kalimantan, who worked at a video game cafe in the Malaysian state of Selangor, were last October sentenced to death by a local court after being convicted of killing a man who had broken into their employers’ house, where they also lived, in December 2010.
They mounted an appeal, arguing they had acted in self-defense, but the move was reportedly turned down earlier this week by a court of appeals. They have since taken their case to the state’s high court.
Indra, a legislator from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), urged President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to raise the issue with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak.
“The government must get involved in this matter. The president and the Malaysian PM must discuss this issue of the death sentence handed down to these two Indonesian nationals,” he said.
“The state had a responsibility to protect them. It must monitor the case closely and provide the men with all the legal assistance available, because it appears their rights were violated.”
Source: Jakarta Globe, June 8, 2013