Executions
likely postponed
as officials leave
Agus
Maryono, The Jakarta Post, Cilacap | Headlines | Sun, March 08 2015, 6:15 AM
The
execution of 10 convicts on Nusakambangan prison island in Cilacap, Central
Java, will most likely be postponed, with the relevant officials leaving the
regency.
Officials
from the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) and the National Police reportedly
checked out of their hotels on Friday.
“That’s right, they checked out on Friday. Most
of them were police officers,” said a receptionist of the Wijaya Kusuma Hotel,
who asked for anonymity, on Saturday. She said that as of Thursday, her hotel had been fully
occupied by mostly police personnel.
Earlier,
almost all hotels in Cilacap, especially those located in downtown Cilacap, had
enjoyed full occupancy rates, as two high-profile convicts, Australians Myuran
Sukumaran and Andrew Chan of the so-called Bali Nine drug trafficking gang,
were escorted to Nusakambangan for execution.
A
member of staff at Sindoro Hotel said the hotel had been fully booked a week
before the Bali Nine duo had arrived in Nusakambangan. They were booked for a
week’s stay, starting from March 3.
Yet,
on Saturday, the staff said, many of the hotel’s rooms were already vacant.
Meanwhile, Ursa Supit, the lawyer of Nigerian
death-row inmate Raheem Agbaje Salami, who has been in Cilacap for three days,
confirmed the departures.
“There
are no more prosecutors in Nusakambangan. They’ve all returned to Jakarta,”
Ursa said.
He
said the government had to reconsider postponing the executions, as many of the
death-row convicts scheduled to be executed were still undergoing the legal
process.
“My
client Raheem, for example, had to attend a trial at the Jakarta State
Administrative Court on Monday, for the rejection of our judicial review
proposal,” Ursa said.
As of
Saturday, security measures at the prison island’s Wijaya Kusuma Dock appeared
less tight than before. No police officers were seen guarding the dock and only
the prison’s security officers were seen checking on visitors.
On
Friday, AGO spokesman Tony Spontana said the executions would unlikely be
conducted soon, although
nine of the death-row convicts, including Sukumaran and Chan, had arrived in
Nusakambangan.
Earlier,
many speculated that the executions would be conducted this weekend based on
the January executions of six drug traffickers who spent three days on the
prison island before facing the firing squad.
Meanwhile,
the Brazilian Embassy in Indonesia was reportedly still awaiting a reply from
the AGO regarding its request to send Brazilian death-row inmate Rodrigo
Gularte to a mental hospital for treatment, as the Cilacap regency-owned RSUD
Hospital had declared him mentally ill.
“We
have sent the official letter to the AGO but have not yet received a response,”
Brazilian Deputy Ambassador to Indonesia Leonardo Monteiro said in Jakarta on
Saturday as quoted by Antara news agency.
Previously,
Attorney General M. Prasetyo said that according to the law on the death
penalty, mental illness was not a reason for the postponement of an execution.
“No
regulation says so. Exceptions apply only to pregnant women and those under the
age of 18. For others, there are no exceptions. Gularte did not have a mental illness when he committed the
crime,”Prasetyo said.
This news is accurate
because in this news there are some sources, like the interview from receptionist of the Wijaya Kusuma Hotel, A member of staff at Sindoro Hotel, and quoted by Antara news agency, etc.
This new is also balanced,
fair, and objective because this news does not take sides.
In this news very clear
because the news tells why the executions are postpone. But the news does not
concise because the main reason why the executions are postpone does not reveal
directly.
This news is current
because this topic is trending topic now, many of pros and cons about the death
penalty.