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Govt will not swap Sandiford with Rizvi
Law and Human Rights Minister Amir Syamsuddin said on Friday that Indonesia would not swap British Lindsay June Sandiford â a narcotics convict on death row â with Rafat Ali Rizvi, a British national convicted of fraud for his role in the Bank Century scandal
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aw and Human Rights Minister Amir Syamsuddin said on Friday that Indonesia would not swap British Lindsay June Sandiford ' a narcotics convict on death row ' with Rafat Ali Rizvi, a British national convicted of fraud for his role in the Bank Century scandal.
The minister made the statement in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling that rejected Sandiford's appeal of her death sentence for smuggling 3.8 kilograms of cocaine into the resort island of Bali.
A prisoner swap could only be carried only if there were regulations to implement it Amir said on Friday on the sidelines of an event at the State Palace.
In January, the Denpasar District Court handed a death penalty to the British national despite the prosecutors' demand that she be jailed for 15 years. The Bali High Court upheld the verdict in April.
Rizvi, a 52-year-old British national was sentenced in absentia to 15 years by the Central Jakarta District Court in 2010 for numerous counts of bank fraud that led to financial difficulties prior to the Bank Century bailout scandal.
Rizvi, the former owner of Bank Century, along with convicted Saudi Arabian national Hesham al Warraq, fled overseas in April last year and stashed their stolen money in Hong Kong and Europe, according to the National Police.
In total, the pair embezzled around Rp 12 trillion of bank assets, according to the Attorney General's Office (AGO) in November 2009. Bank Century, now renamed Bank Mutiara, received a state bailout worth Rp 6.7 trillion after it's near-collapse in 2008.
Amir denied there were talks between the two governments about a swap following British media reports.
However, according to the ministry's website, Amir is known to have visited the UK recently and met with some officials including the Senior Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Minister for Faith and Communities Baroness Warsi 'to increase legal cooperation between Indonesia and the UK related to the asset recovery from and extradition process of Rizvi to Indonesia'.
Supreme Court spokesman Ridwan Mansyur said the cessation panel never considered anything related to politics in issuing its verdict. 'The judges [only looked at the facts] for example, she was found guilty of bringing a considerable amount of cocaine into Indonesia.'
