ladyarkles
03-23-2005, 12:46 AM
INDONESIA:
Clemency Sought for Brazilian on death row
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has been urged to grant clemency to a Brazilian man sentenced to death for smuggling 13.4 kilograms of cocaine into Indonesia in a hang-glider frame.
The appeal was made by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in a letter sent to Yudhoyono on Monday (21/3/05), the Associated Press reported.
Marco Archer Cardoso Moreira (42), a hang-gliding instructor from Rio de Janeiro, was caught at Jakartas Soekarno-Hatta International Airport with the drugs hidden in his equipment in August 2003. Tangerang District Court sentenced him to death in June 2004. He has since exhausted all avenues of appeal, with the Supreme Court upholding his sentence last Wednesday.
The letter sent to Yudhoyono reportedly asked the president to change the sentence to life imprisonment. Da Silvas spokesman Andre Singer told Agence France-Presse that the message conceded Moreiras crime was serious but that Brazilian law does not include the death penalty. Executing Moreira would "cause enormous popular shock", he added.
Indonesia last year executed three foreigners for smuggling 12.29 kilograms of heroin into the country in 1994. Indian national citizen Ayodhya Prasad Chaubey was executed at a golf course on the outskirts of Medan, North Sumatra, on August 5. His 2 accomplices, Thai citizens Saelow Praseart and Namsong Sirilak, were executed on October 1.
There are now about 45 people on death row in Indonesia, including three militants convicted over the October 12, 2002, Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202 people.
Only a few official executions have been carried out in Indonesia since 1995, mainly due to international pressure. Rights groups argue that Indonesia, as a member of the United Nations, should comply with the world organization's opposition to the death penalty for drug-related crimes.
Most of the more than 30 people now on death row in Indonesia for drug offenses are foreigners, including several Africans. Critics complain that Indonesia's notoriously corrupt courts have failed to mete out similar harsh justice to members of the security forces allegedly involved in narcotics trafficking. There are also complaints that children of powerful military officers and politicians are rarely punished, let alone put to death, for drug offenses.
Indonesia is among 90 countries that impose the death penalty, but data from Amnesty International shows that most of the world's executions are carried out by only a handful of countries: China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the US.
Capital offenses in Indonesia include: terrorism, crimes against national security, subversion, assassination of senior state officials, murder, theft resulting in murder, gross human rights violations, maritime piracy and drug offenses.
Prisoners sentenced to death by civilian or military courts have the right to appeal to a higher court and then the Supreme Court. A request for presidential clemency can be made immediately after the initial sentence, but is usually made only if courts of appeal uphold the death sentence.
Legislator Demands Executions
Legislator Al Muzammil Yusuf, deputy chairman of the Islam-based Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), on Tuesday said the government should immediately execute convicted drug traffickers on death row as a form of "shock therapy."
Yusuf, a member of parliaments Commission III on law, legislation, human rights and security, noted that at least five drug traffickers sentenced to death by Banten provinces Tangerang District Court had exhausted all avenues of appeal - including requests for presidential clemency - but are yet to be executed.
The five, all men, are: Nepali national Indra Bahadur Tamang (24), Nigerian national Samuel Iwuchekwu Okoye (34), Nigerian national Hansen Anthony Nwaolisa (37), Malawian national Namaona Denis (39), and Pakistani national Muhammad Abdul Hafez (36).
"The Banten Provincial Prosecutor's Office has the authority to execute them. The acceleration of their executions is a golden opportunity for Indonesias anti-drugs campaign," Yusuf was quoted as saying by detikcom online news portal.
"This is a necessary form of shock therapy," he said, adding the five deserved the death penalty because their actions had brought suffering on the Indonesian nation.
He said anti-drugs campaigns conducted by the National Narcotics Agency
(BNN) would not be effective if not supported by speedy executions of the drug traffickers on death row. Indonesias reluctance to carry out swift executions would make the country more appealing for international drug trafficking syndicates, he added.
(source: Laksamana.net)
Clemency Sought for Brazilian on death row
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has been urged to grant clemency to a Brazilian man sentenced to death for smuggling 13.4 kilograms of cocaine into Indonesia in a hang-glider frame.
The appeal was made by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in a letter sent to Yudhoyono on Monday (21/3/05), the Associated Press reported.
Marco Archer Cardoso Moreira (42), a hang-gliding instructor from Rio de Janeiro, was caught at Jakartas Soekarno-Hatta International Airport with the drugs hidden in his equipment in August 2003. Tangerang District Court sentenced him to death in June 2004. He has since exhausted all avenues of appeal, with the Supreme Court upholding his sentence last Wednesday.
The letter sent to Yudhoyono reportedly asked the president to change the sentence to life imprisonment. Da Silvas spokesman Andre Singer told Agence France-Presse that the message conceded Moreiras crime was serious but that Brazilian law does not include the death penalty. Executing Moreira would "cause enormous popular shock", he added.
Indonesia last year executed three foreigners for smuggling 12.29 kilograms of heroin into the country in 1994. Indian national citizen Ayodhya Prasad Chaubey was executed at a golf course on the outskirts of Medan, North Sumatra, on August 5. His 2 accomplices, Thai citizens Saelow Praseart and Namsong Sirilak, were executed on October 1.
There are now about 45 people on death row in Indonesia, including three militants convicted over the October 12, 2002, Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202 people.
Only a few official executions have been carried out in Indonesia since 1995, mainly due to international pressure. Rights groups argue that Indonesia, as a member of the United Nations, should comply with the world organization's opposition to the death penalty for drug-related crimes.
Most of the more than 30 people now on death row in Indonesia for drug offenses are foreigners, including several Africans. Critics complain that Indonesia's notoriously corrupt courts have failed to mete out similar harsh justice to members of the security forces allegedly involved in narcotics trafficking. There are also complaints that children of powerful military officers and politicians are rarely punished, let alone put to death, for drug offenses.
Indonesia is among 90 countries that impose the death penalty, but data from Amnesty International shows that most of the world's executions are carried out by only a handful of countries: China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the US.
Capital offenses in Indonesia include: terrorism, crimes against national security, subversion, assassination of senior state officials, murder, theft resulting in murder, gross human rights violations, maritime piracy and drug offenses.
Prisoners sentenced to death by civilian or military courts have the right to appeal to a higher court and then the Supreme Court. A request for presidential clemency can be made immediately after the initial sentence, but is usually made only if courts of appeal uphold the death sentence.
Legislator Demands Executions
Legislator Al Muzammil Yusuf, deputy chairman of the Islam-based Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), on Tuesday said the government should immediately execute convicted drug traffickers on death row as a form of "shock therapy."
Yusuf, a member of parliaments Commission III on law, legislation, human rights and security, noted that at least five drug traffickers sentenced to death by Banten provinces Tangerang District Court had exhausted all avenues of appeal - including requests for presidential clemency - but are yet to be executed.
The five, all men, are: Nepali national Indra Bahadur Tamang (24), Nigerian national Samuel Iwuchekwu Okoye (34), Nigerian national Hansen Anthony Nwaolisa (37), Malawian national Namaona Denis (39), and Pakistani national Muhammad Abdul Hafez (36).
"The Banten Provincial Prosecutor's Office has the authority to execute them. The acceleration of their executions is a golden opportunity for Indonesias anti-drugs campaign," Yusuf was quoted as saying by detikcom online news portal.
"This is a necessary form of shock therapy," he said, adding the five deserved the death penalty because their actions had brought suffering on the Indonesian nation.
He said anti-drugs campaigns conducted by the National Narcotics Agency
(BNN) would not be effective if not supported by speedy executions of the drug traffickers on death row. Indonesias reluctance to carry out swift executions would make the country more appealing for international drug trafficking syndicates, he added.
(source: Laksamana.net)