INDONESIA: President refuses to grant clemency to Brazilian while two Australian nationals are sentenced to death 

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information of two cases where President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has turned down requests for clemency against the death penalty.  The first request was filed by a Brazilian national, Marco Archer Cardosa Moreira, who is currently sitting on death row.  Marco was sentenced to death after smuggling 13.7 kilograms of cocaine through Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, in 2004.  The Supreme Court rejected his appeal in January last year against the conviction after a lower court upheld the death penalty.  Although an exact date of the execution is not confirmed, what we do know is that Moreira is now facing a firing squad.

The second case concerns two Australian nationals, Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan who are accused of attempting to carry class-one drugs out of Bali.  Mr. Chan and Mr. Sukumaran are the first Australians to be sentenced to death for drug trafficking in Indonesia.  According to legal experts, Mr. Chan and Mr. Sukumaran would face a firing squad within three months. 

Many States now oppose the death penalty, including Australia and Brazil, given the current trend of abolishing the death penalty, Indonesia must reconsider her sentencing laws in accordance with her international obligations.

Case 1

Mr. Moreira, who is a pilot with doctor status, was arrested in Sumbawa, West Nusa Tenggara in 2004 after attempting to smuggle 13.7 kilograms of cocaine, concealed in the crossbar of his paraglider.  He was sentenced to death by the Tangerang District Court; this sentence was upheld, in his appeal, by the west Java High Court.  Although he appealed to the Indonesian Supreme Court, they rejected his case in January 2005.

The Brazilian President, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva had sent a letter to Indonesia’s President, Yudhoyono, in 2005 asking to spare the life of Mr. Morwiira.  But in January 2006, President Yudhoyono refused to give clemency, replying in his letter to the Brazilian President that he could not intervene in the legal process.  According to our sources, correspondence between the two Presidents has ceased.

Case 2

Mr. Chan, (22-years old) a former catering worker and Mr. Sukumaran (24-years old) a bank worker, were part of a group of eight men and one woman, dubbed by Australian media as the ‘Bali nine’, who had attempted to smuggle 8.2 kilograms of heroin out of Bali in April 2005.  Police had detained some of the members at Bali’s airport with heroin strapped to their bodies, while the others were arrested in a nearby hotel room.

Indonesian prosecutors demanded the death penalty for both Mr. Chan and Mr. Sukumaran, while the rest of the group was sentenced to life imprisonment.  Both men have been found guilty of “exporting heroin in an organized ring and possessing a prohibited class-one narcotic” by the Denpasar District Court.

Australia is opposed to the death penalty and their Prime Minister, John Howard signaled that he would take up the issue with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at an appropriate time but warned that the Government could not overturn Indonesian law.  However, the Indonesian President does have the power to question the judgment of even the highest court in Indonesia and grant clemency to the defendants sentenced to death.

These death sentences follow the tragic hanging of 25-year old, Nguyen Tuong Van in Singapore in December 2005, who was charged with importing drugs into Singapore and sentenced to death. (see further UP-128-2005) They also highlight the disregard the Indonesian judicial system has for the right to life encapsulated by Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.  Article 6(2) strictly restricts a sentence of death to be imposed only for the “most serious crimes” such as intentional murder, but the Indonesian government has been using the death penalty in a disproportional manner.  The government has been applying capital punishment to cases, which are not considered ‘most serious crimes’, such as non-violent drug offences and for inciting communal conflict (see further UA-205-2005).

The AHRC strongly condemns the action of the Indonesian government, which is a violation of the right to life; one of the most fundamental of human rights. It is also a clear violation of the ICCPR, which Indonesia is a state party.

SUGGESTED ACTION:

Please write letters to the authorities listed below, in particular please urge President Yudhoyono to reconsider Indonesia’s current sentencing laws in line with their obligations under Article 6 of the ICCPR.  In light of the growing movement in many States of abolishing the death penalty, the Indonesian government must abolish the death penalty as it is against basic human rights principles, enshrined within the Indonesian constitution as well as international covenants.  Furthermore, while taking steps to abolish the death penalty, a moratorium must be introduced to all current death penalty cases.

Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC)
—————————————————–

To support this case, please click here: SEND APPEAL LETTER