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Rights groups call on govt to abolish death penalty
Rights groups have called on the government to remove the death penalty from the country’s legal system, given the lack of sufficient evidence that it would deter other people from committing crimes and the high risk of wrongful conviction.
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Don’t do it: Human rights activists stage a rally in Kota Tua, West Jakarta, on Wednesday to commemorate World Day against the Death Penalty. (The Jakarta Post/Vellen Augustine)
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ights groups have called on the government to remove the death penalty from the country’s legal system, given the lack of evidence that it would deter other people from committing crimes and the high risk of wrongful conviction.
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Indonesian judges continue to mete out capital punishments, mostly to drug convicts, with trials conducted via teleconference. Such practices, activists say, potentially put the due process of law at risk for the defendants.
As many as 129 convicts were sentenced to capital punishment between March 2020 and September 2021, according to data compiled by human rights watchdog Imparsial.
“At a time when people all over the world were trying to save lives during the COVID-19 pandemic, on the other side, there were people easily taking the lives of others [through death sentences],” said Imparsial researcher Amalia Suri on Monday.
She went on to add that online trials via videoconference had essentially compromised the rights of the defendants to have a fair trial, with technical glitches often hindering the hearing process.
Amalia called on the government to remove the death penalty from the penal code as it was not in line with the modern penal system that serves as an instrument for social correction.
“The spirit of capital punishment is an eye for an eye, which contradicts the modern goal of sentencing of acting as an instrument for social correction,” said Amalia.
