Flawed justice in Indonesia

Activists hold posters which read "Jokowi, stop the executions!" during a candlelit

vigil outside the presidential palace in Jakarta. Photo: AP

Yet again on Friday morning, Indonesia showed its most brutal and ugly face to the world. Despite worldwide protests and serious questions concerning their guilt, and allegations of torture, rape and coerced confessions, Indonesia moved to execute 14 people convicted of drug-related crimes in President Widodo's so-called "war on drugs".

Only four were executed; however, the 180 riflemen assigned to carry out the executions are still on the island, and reporters have been told that the others will face an execution squad "later".

This is the third round of executions since Joko Widodo came to power in 2014. Six people were executed in the first round, but a second round in April 2015, which included Australians, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, caused international tumult, and resulted in the recall of the Australia, and Brazilian ambassadors.

Much of the controversy in the second round focused on the case of Rodrigo Gularte, a Brazilian captured at Jakarta Airport carrying 5.6 kilograms of cocaine.

Gularte, who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, was in the middle of a psychotic episode when he was captured, and though appellate courts were informed of Gularte's long history of mental illness dating back to childhood, they refused to accept any of the 24 medical reports proffered.

Attorney-General Muhammed Prasetyo ridiculed his condition, but finally succumbed to international pressure and appointed four government doctors to report on his condition a week before he was executed. Their findings have still not been released.

In December 2015, Amnesty International published a report, Flawed Justice, detailing much of what is wrong with Indonesia's shambolic legal system, and stating that many of the 14 already executed had unfair trials, poor legal representation or no representation at all.

The report also says that police brutality and torture are routine aspects of the Indonesian legal process. and that bribery and corruption is endemic at every level.

But allegations of police brutality, bribery, and claims of innocence have not moved Widodo to stop this grisly and unseemly spectacle. Nor has the clamour from human rights groups, the European Union, or the United Nations, all of whom have called for a moratorium on the use of the death penalty in Indonesia.

This time, Rodrigo's cellmate, Zulfiqar Ali, who barely escaped being burnt alive when Gularte tried to burn his cell down in a psychotic rage, was due to be executed.

A textile worker from Pakistan, he was arrested in November 2004 at his home after a neighbour, Gurdip Singh, was captured at Jakarta Airport with 300 grams of heroin. He alleged – under duress – that Ali had given him the heroin; a "confession" he later recanted in court.

Ali was allegedly beaten by police for three days at his home, and in fear that they would kill him and his girlfriend, tearfully signed a confession, which he later retracted.

Ali was held incommunicado for 3 months without access to a lawyer or consular officials, and as a result of the tortures he allegedly received in police custody, he needed stomach and kidney surgery.

An internal investigation conducted into the case by Hafid Abbas, the former Director-General of Human Rights in the Ministry of Law, found Ali to be innocent, and Abbas sent a report to then President Yudhoyono, saying that Ali should be released, but it was "never acted on".

That was over a decade ago, but former president B. J. Habibie, telephoned president Widodo on Thursday, and discussed the Ali case, although it is unclear if this caused his removal from the final line-up.

Another case in the current round deserves highlighting. Merri Utami, an Indonesian domestic worker who was captured in 2001 with 1.1 kilograms of heroin at Jakarta Airport.

After the heroin was found in her baggage, she was repeatedly hit by immigration and police officials, and then taken to a hotel where she was sexually assaulted and tortured in an effort to coerce her confession.

According to the National Commission on Violence Against Women, Utami was the unwitting dupe of a Canadian named Jerry, who showered her with attention and financial support, before inviting her to stay with him in Nepal.

But after three days, he informed her that he had to attend to business in Jakarta, and asked her to stay so that she could bring back some goods for him, including a leather bag which he had stuffed with heroin.

The Indonesian government claims that these executions are a necessity in the war on drugs, but as their own statistics show, there has been no depreciation in the number of drug addicts since April 2015. In fact, it has increased. So, clearly this is not about saving lives. It's about machismo and hanging tough.

Source: The Canberra Times, Clive Simmons, July 29, 2016. Clive Simmons is the Convenor of the Facebook page, Unite and Hope: Fighting for Human Rights and Abolishing the Death Penalty.

⚑ | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; send a submission; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com.

Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running!

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." - Oscar Wilde

Florida executes Michael Tanzi

Florida on Tuesday executed a death row inmate described by one local detective as a "fledgling serial killer" for the murder of a beloved Miami Herald employee. Florida executed Michael Tanzi on Tuesday, 25 years after the murder of beloved Miami Herald employee Janet Acosta, who was attacked in broad daylight on her lunch break in 2000. Michael Tanzi, 48, was executed by lethal injection at the Florida State Prison in Raiford and pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. ET.

South Carolina | Man who ambushed off-duty cop to face firing squad in second execution of its kind

Mikal Mahdi, 48, who was found guilty of killing an off-duty police officer and a convenience store worker, is the second inmate scheduled to executed by South Carolina's new firing squad A murderer who ambushed and shot an off duty police officer eight times before burning his body in a killing spree is set to become the second person to die by firing squad. South Carolina's highest court has rejected the last major appeal from Mikal Mahdi, 41, who is to be put to death with three bullets to the heart at 6pm on April 11 at the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia. Mahdi's lawyers said his original lawyers put on a shallow case trying to spare his life that didn't call on relatives, teachers or people who knew him and ignored the impact of weeks spent in solitary confinement in prison as a teen.

Lethal Injection, Electric Chair, or Firing Squad? An Inhumane Decision for Death Row Prisoners

South Carolina resumed executions with the firing squad killing of Brad Sigmon last month. Mikal Madhi’s execution date is days away. The curtain shrieked as it was yanked open to reveal a 67-year-old man tied to a chair. His arms were pulled uncomfortably behind his back. The red bull’s-eye target on his chest rose and fell as he desperately attempted to still his breathing. The man, Brad Sigmon, smiled at his attorney, Bo King, seated in the front row before guards placed a black bag over his head. King said Sigmon appeared to be trying his best to put on a brave face for those who had come to bear witness.

Afghanistan | Four men publicly executed by Taliban with relatives of victims shooting them 'six or seven times' at sport stadium

Four men have been publicly executed by the Taliban, with relatives of their victims shooting them several times in front of spectators at a sport stadium. Two men were shot around six to seven times by a male relative of the victims in front of spectators in Qala-i-Naw, the centre of Afghanistan's Badghis province, witnesses told an AFP journalist in the city. The men had been 'sentenced to retaliatory punishment' for shooting other men, after their cases were 'examined very precisely and repeatedly', the statement said. 'The families of the victims were offered amnesty and peace but they refused.'

South Carolina executes Mikal Mahdi

Mikal Mahdi, 42, was executed for the 2004 murder of 56-year-old James Myers A man facing the death penalty for committing two murders was executed by firing squad on Friday, the second such execution in the US state of South Carolina this year. Mikal Mahdi, 42, was executed for the 2004 murder of 56-year-old James Myers, an off-duty police officer, and the murder of a convenience store employee three days earlier. According to a statement from the prison, "the execution was performed by a three-person firing squad at 6:01 pm (2201 GMT)," with Mahdi pronounced dead four minutes later.

Louisiana | Lawyers of Jessie Hoffman speak about their final moments before execution

As Louisiana prepared its first execution in 15 years, a team of lawyers from Loyola Law were working to save Jessie Hoffman’s life. “I was a young lawyer three years out of law school, and Jessie was almost finished with his appeals at that time, and my boss told me we needed to file something for Jessie because he’s in danger of being executed,” Kappel said. Kappel and her boss came up with a civil lawsuit to file that said since they wouldn’t give him a protocol for his execution, he was being deprived of due process, and the lawsuit was in the legal process for the next 10 years.

USA | Why the firing squad may be making a comeback

South Carolina plans to execute Mikal Mahdi on Friday for the murder of a police officer, draping a hood over his head and firing three bullets into his heart. The choice to die by firing squad – rather than lethal injection or the electric chair – was Mahdi’s own, his attorney said last month: “Faced with barbaric and inhumane choices, Mikal Mahdi has chosen the lesser of three evils.” If it proceeds, Mahdi’s execution would be the latest in a recent string of events that have put the spotlight on the firing squad as a handful of US death penalty states explore alternatives to lethal injection, by far the nation’s dominant execution method.

I spent 16 years in solitary in South Carolina. This is what it did to me. | Opinion

South Carolinian Randy Poindexter writes about the effects 16 years of solitary confinement had on him ahead of South Carolina’s planned execution of Mikal Mahdi , who spent months in solitary as a young man. For 16 years, I lived in a concrete cell. Twenty-three hours a day, every day, for more than 3,000 days, South Carolina kept me in solitary confinement. I was a young man before I was sent to solitary — angry, untreated and unwell. I made mistakes. But I wasn’t sentenced to madness. That’s what solitary did to me. My mental health worsened with each passing day. At first, paranoia and depression set in. Then, hallucinations and self-mutilation. I talked to people who weren’t there. I cut myself to feel something besides despair. I could do nothing as four of my friends and fellow prisoners took their own lives rather than endure another day of torturous isolation.

Arizona | The cruelty of isolation: There’s nothing ‘humane’ about how we treat the condemned

On March 19, I served as a witness to the execution of a man named Aaron Gunches, Arizona’s first since 2022. During his time on death row, he begged for death and was ultimately granted what is likely more appropriately described as an emotionless state-assisted suicide. This experience has profoundly impacted me, leading to deep reflection on the nature of death, humanity, and the role we play in our final moments. When someone is in the end stages of life, we talk about hospice care, comfort, care, easing suffering and humane death. We strive for a “good death” — a peaceful transition. I’ve seen good ones, and I’ve seen bad, unplanned ones.

Execution date set for prisoner transferred to Oklahoma to face death penalty

An inmate who was transferred to Oklahoma last month to face the death penalty now has an execution date. George John Hanson, also known as John Fitzgerald Hanson, is scheduled to die on June 12 for the 1999 murder of 77-year-old Mary Bowles. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals on Tuesday set the execution date. The state’s Pardon and Parole Board has a tentative date of May 7 for Hanson’s clemency hearing, executive director Tom Bates said.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog