Death Penalty Will Not Deter Corruptors, And Its Inhumane

Posted on Apr 06, 2010

Minister of Justice and Human Rights Patrialis Akbar asserted that the Indonesian Constitution of 1945 does not prohibit the application of the death penalty for people convicted of corruption.

“In our constitution, capital punishment is mentioned as part of human rights that should not be revoked under any circumstances, too. But, Article 28 (i) mentioned that the implementation of human rights is limited by two things. First, it must not violate the rights of others. Second, it is restricted by law. So, it is possible for the states issue a low that would impose death penalty to convicted corruptor, “he said.

However, the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) Chairman Patra M Zein said they oppose death penalty for convicted corruptor. Patra said, the United Nations study has shown that there is no statistically valid data that support the application of the death penalty to be directly proportional to the decrease in corruption level. “Both are not proportionally related,” he said when contacted by Kompas.com on Tuesday (6/4/2010) in Jakarta.

Patra is also considered that using death penalty as a deterrent effect is conceptually wrong. “The purpose of punishment is rehabilitation to make someone better, not for revenge,” he said.

Regarding problem that there are some convicted corruptors who remain “active” from inside prison cells, Patra said, this is not entirely their fault. The detention and correctional institutions should be improved as well as an oversight improvement.
Patra also said that as long as the Indonesian justice system remains rotten and corrupt, the death penalty can not be applied. “A death sentence could be imposed as a way to gag defendants in order to keep their mouth shut against larger and controversial cases,” he added.

He stressed that YLBHI strongly opposes death sentence for convicted of corruption. YLBHI is of an opinion that a death sentence is against universal human rights. In addition, the death sentence is a punishment that can not be corrected or overturned.

Separately, Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) Coordinator Usman Hamid, said that even the death penalty executions were in China and Latvia are still drawing protests. The death penalty implementation continues to be selective and only imposed on certain political figures.

In the Nordic countries and Western Europe, which knows no death penalty, corruption is very low. “The most important thing is actually the honesty of law enforcement officers,” he said.

“This is just some emotional expression by the minister in response to rampant corruption and bribery cases that overwhelmed this country,” Usman said.

“Never mind the death penalty, even life imprisonment or 20 years imprisonments are pretty rare here,” said Usman.

Usman also said that Kontras is of an opinion that death penalty is inhuman.