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Jakarta Post

New minister promises not to parole Paskah, other graft convicts

The Law and Human Rights Ministry has quashed Paskah Suzetta’s hopes of walking out of prison on parole

Ina Parlina (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Tue, November 1, 2011

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New minister promises not to parole Paskah, other graft convicts

T

he Law and Human Rights Ministry has quashed Paskah Suzetta’s hopes of walking out of prison on parole.

The former national development planning minister, who is eligible for release after completing two-thirds of his sentence, is one of a host of former and current politicians incarcerated for accepting bribes in the Bank Indonesia vote-buying scandal.

“Since my deputy [Denny Indrayana] and I took office, we have never freed anyone on parole except for [former lawmaker] Agus Condro,” Law and Human Rights Minister Amir Syamsuddin told reporters on Monday.

Agus said that the ministry would temporarily ban paroles and sentence reductions that would
free inmates convicted of corruption or terrorism, except in the case of whistle-blowers or those cooperating with officials on other cases.

The exception that Amir, who replaced Patrialis Akbar in the Oct. 19 Cabinet reshuffle, was referring to was Agus Condro Prayitno, who told authorities about travelers’ checks given to dozens of lawmakers prior to them casting votes for Miranda S. Goeltom as a Bank Indonesia senior deputy governor in 2009.

“It’s their right to request [paroles and remissions], but we are determined to temporarily suspend such mechanisms. That is our policy,” Amir said. “This is in line with the spirit of justice.”

Earlier, Paskah’s lawyer, Singap Panjaitan, claimed that his client deserved to be paroled and released on Sunday after competing two-thirds of his sentence.

Paskah was sentenced to 16 months’ imprisonment after he was found guilty of accepting 12 travelers’ checks worth Rp 600 million (US$68,400) that were allegedly paid to install Miranda at the central bank in 2004.

A court handed down guilty verdicts on Paskah, nine other Golkar lawmakers and 18 former lawmakers from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), including Agus Condro; the United Development Party (PPP); and the now-defunct Army/Police faction.

Agus was released on parole last week after serving two-thirds of his 15-month sentence.

However, an official at Cipinang Penitentiary confirmed on Monday that Paskah had not been released.

“We have definitely not paroled him,” Cipinang warden Suharman said.

Separately, Denny Indrayana, a presidential special assistant for legal affairs, said his office would soon be ready with a new government regulation to address paroles and sentence reductions, which effectively imposed a moratorium on the practices.

The Corrections Law stipulates that inmates have the right to be freed on parole or by remission if they meet the requirements of the government’s 2006 Regulation on Procedures for Inmate Rights.

Akhiar Salmi, a criminal law expert at the University of Indonesia, told The Jakarta Post that imposing a moratorium without a clear implementation regulation might lead to problems. However, he added, no revision of the Corrections Law would be required.

“Instead of revising the law, the ministry can just revoke the existing government regulation as an implementing rule and change it without freeing corruption and terrorism convicts,” he said, adding that it would be automatically rule out freeing the inmates on remission or parole.

“It will be easy as they need no consent from the House to make such an implementing regulation,” he said.

Singap said that it would be unfair to delay his client’s parole due to the moratorium.

“They must introduce such postponements of paroles or remissions into the law, instead of using a moratorium,” he said.

Singap added that Paskah’s Golkar colleagues — who also received 16-month sentences for the same crime — deserved to be paroled, as they also have completed two-thirds of their prison terms. (rpt)

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