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Former death-row inmate tells of dark days in prison
Yusman (JP/Ibrahim Irsyad)For Yusman Telaumbanua, 21, the years he spent in prison as a death row inmate could only be described as a prolonged near death experience
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Yusman (JP/Ibrahim Irsyad)
For Yusman Telaumbanua, 21, the years he spent in prison as a death row inmate could only be described as a prolonged near death experience.
Yusman is now a free man after the Supreme Court commuted his death sentence in February and concluded his five year prison term on Aug. 17 for a crime he claimed he did not commit.
But the man, who was a minor when he was accused of committing the crime, could vividly recall the physical and mental torment he had to endure while waiting his turn for execution.
He recollected all the dark scenes that had plagued his life for the last 5 years.
During one of the days he spent at the secluded prison island of Nusa Kambangan in Cilacap Regency, Central Java, in 2015, a Nigerian cell mate named Daniel was taken and transferred to an isolation cell.
All the inmates knew that a transfer to the isolation cell was a step closer to execution, he said.
“I had sleepless nights after my cell mate [Daniel] was moved to isolation. My days were full of anxiety thinking of when my turn would come,” Yusman said. His voice was dead.
“I am happy now because I have been sparred from the death penalty,” he went on, with his eyes caught staring blankly.
Yusman’s case is yet another example of the flaws in the Indonesian criminal justice system with many finding it mind-boggling the country insists on maintaining the death penalty.
Yusman, who lived in Nias Regency, North Sumatra, was sentenced to death by the Gunungsitoli District Court in 2013 for the premeditated murder of three local gecko sellers in 2012. One of the victims was his employer.
The North Sumatra High Court and the Supreme Court then upheld the ruling. He was 16 years old when he was declared guilty of murder, a fact that the courts chose to ignore.
In 2015, Yusman was transferred to Nusa Kambangan to join other death row convicts.
His name was included on the list of inmates to face the firing squad for execution in January 2015. However, he escaped the first round of executions to take place during President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s presidency following calls from human rights campaigners to review his case after it was found that he had been a minor and thus could not be sentenced to death.
According to the 2012 Law on Child Criminal Procedures, the harshest punishment for minor offenders is 10 years’ imprisonment.
With legal assistance provided by his team of lawyers from the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), Yusman filed a case review request with the Supreme Court. The court granted his request, stating that while Yusman was still guilty of murder, a dental forensic exam proved that he had been a minor when he committed the crime.
He has been a free man since Aug. 17 after serving 4 years and 11 months in prison after he was arrested in 2012. He was granted a one-month remission as a gift to celebrate the country’s 72nd anniversary.
“What happened to Yusman has proved that indeed there are irregularities in Indonesia’s criminal justice system,” Putri Kanesia, one of Yusman’s legal counselors from Kontras, said.
“It has given us a very valuable lesson on the need to evaluate the death penalty policy.”
Kontras suspected that Yusman had been subjected to violence during the investigation and had not been accompanied by any lawyers during questioning.
The commission has been one of the organizations that has turned up the volume of criticism of the government’s death penalty policy believing that Indonesia’s judicial system is marred by corrupt practices.
The calls for the government to review its policy have fallen on deaf ears, however, as three executions have taken place during Jokowi’s three-year presidency.
Two executions took place in 2015 — in January and April — with the third round occurring in July last year. A total of 18 inmates, most of whom were convicted for drug smuggling, were executed during the three executions. The government has insisted on implementing capital punishment especially as part of its declared war on drugs.
