Rights activist against death penalty for graft convicts

Human rights activist Patra M. Zein has challenged the government’s push for death penalty to combat rampant corruption in the country, saying it will be too much to deter people from committing the crime.  

Patra, who chairs the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI), said Tuesday the country’s poor judiciary would hamper appropriate implementation of capital punishment.

“The idea of sentencing guilty people is to correct their behavior. Punishment does not amount to revenge,” Patra was quoted by kompas.com.

He warned that death penalty could serve as a grace exit to hush corruption witnesses from revealing bigger graft cases.

Indonesia has come under fire from international human rights groups for maintaining death sentence and executing convicts.