Indonesian Law Ministry narrows amnesty list to 1,000 prisoners
JAKARTA: The Indonesian Law Ministry has significantly reduced the number of inmates eligible to be granted amnesty by the government to around 1,000 following a comprehensive verification of prisoners' backgrounds.
During a meeting with House of Representatives Commission XIII overseeing human rights on Wednesday (May 21), the ministry's general legal administration director general Widodo said the list initially included 44,000 names of inmates provided by the Immigration and Corrections Ministry's correctional facilities directorate general.
The ministry is working with various institutions, which include the corrections directorate general, the State Secretary, the Attorney General's Office and the National Police to verify the data. Once completed, the list will undergo an anonymous review by criminal law experts.
But the number has decreased throughout layers of verification stages, which already processed up to 90 per cent of total inmates.
'Until now, we are still verifying because the data came from the corrections directorate general, and we only have the authority [to use it],' Widodo told lawmakers on Wednesday.
'The number has dropped from 44,000 to 19,000, and now only around 1,000. But we cannot intervene as [we screen based] on court rulings,' he continued.
Widodo added that the ministry focused on four categories of inmates to be considered for amnesty.
They are drug users who are not dealers; people jailed for violating the defamation article in the Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) Law; individuals convicted for treason without engaging in armed movements; and inmates with special needs such as elderly people aged above 70 and those with mental disorders.
'Graft convicts are not included,' Widodo said.
'But if there are any proposals, they will be considered for clemency by the President.'
Last December, the Law Ministry announced President Prabowo Subianto's plan to pardon 44,000 prisoners across the nation on humanitarian grounds as a measure to help ease overcrowding in the country's jails.
The plan was initially expected to reduce prison overcrowding by up to 30 per cent. Commission XIII lawmakers urged the ministry to speed up the verification process, noting the worsening conditions in many overcrowded penitentiaries.
Authorities have recorded several jailbreaks and prison riots this year, including a case in April in Sorong, Southwest Papua, when seven inmates escaped from their penitentiary before eventually being recaptured.
The Sorong Penitentiary is severely overcrowded as it houses 500 inmates, twice its intended capacity. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
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