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Capital punishment counter-productive for RI's efforts to rescue citizens abroad: LBH
The Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation (LBH Jakarta) has said capital punishment is not beneficial to the governmentâs efforts to save Indonesian people facing legal problems who are threatened with the death penalty abroad
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he Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation (LBH Jakarta) has said capital punishment is not beneficial to the government's efforts to save Indonesian people facing legal problems who are threatened with the death penalty abroad.
LBH Jakarta public attorney Eny Rofiatul said the death penalty imposed on Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso, a Philippine convict temporarily reprieved from her execution on Wednesday, was currently affecting hundreds of Indonesian migrant workers abroad.
'Mary Jane is a migrant domestic helper, just like 264 Indonesian migrant workers currently facing the threat of a death sentence in several countries,' she said as quoted by Antara in Jakarta on Thursday.
Eny said the Indonesian government could not make Veloso's case into a criminal case if it was proven that she was a victim of human trafficking, as what had often happened to migrant workers.
This matter had been regulated in Article 18 of Law No.21/2007 on the elimination of human trafficking.
'Without questioning about where they originally come from, migrant workers have always been circled by poverty, which is structural in nature,' said Eny.
The government executed eight prisoners early on Wednesday on the Nusakambangan prison island near Cilacap in Central Java.
The eight were Indonesian Zainal Abidin, Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, Brazilian Rodrigo Gularte, Nigerians Sylvester Obiekwe Nwolise, Raheem Agbaje Salami and Okwudili Oyatanze and Ghanaian Martin Anderson.
Veloso was spared after a woman who allegedly recruited her to act as a drug courier gave himself up to police in the Philippines on Tuesday.
LBH Jakarta is calling on the government to give special attention to Veloso's case.
'As an institution based on principles of human rights, LBH Jakarta considers that the right to life of all people cannot be taken away by anyone or any party, including the state,' said LBH Jakarta director Febi Yonesta.
Therefore, Febi said, President Joko Widodo must ensure that Veloso could obtain all legal assistance needed to prove that she was not guilty, following new developments of her case in the Philippines.
'Facts revealed in her trials showed that Mary Jane was always consistent saying that she was ordered by someone and she was not aware at all of the narcotics found in her suitcase,' said Febi. (ebf)(+++)
