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Govt ‘too lenient’ in granting 23 graft convicts parole, activists say
The Law and Human Rights Ministry has granted parole to several high-profile graft convicts, including former public prosecutor Pinangki Sirna Malasari, former religious affairs minister Suryadharma Ali and former Constitutional Court justice Patrialis Akbar.
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Pinangki Sirna Malasari has a conversation after a hearing at the Jakarta Corruption Court on Sept. 23, 2020. Pinangki walked free on Sept. 5, 2022, after just a year in prison on a bribery conviction, having successfully appealed to reduce her 10-year sentence to just four years. She was granted parole by the Law and Human Rights Ministry. (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)
T
he government has been accused of being soft on corruption after the Law and Human Rights Ministry granted parole to nearly two dozen graft convicts this week, including a former public prosecutor who will walk free after just a year in prison despite an initial 10-year sentence.
On Tuesday, the ministry granted parole to 23 graft convicts, sparking outrage from anticorruption activists and even the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) itself, which had conducted many of the investigations that led to the convictions.
A spokesperson for the ministry’s directorate general for corrections facilities, Rika Apriyanti, justified the early release by saying that the 23 criminals made up just a fraction of the 1,368 convicts who were granted privileges, including parole, conditional leave and leave before release, this month.
The 23 graft convicts were released from two correctional facilities, the Sukamiskin Penitentiary in Bandung, West Java, and the Tangerang Penitentiary in Banten, Rika said as quoted by Kompas.
She suggested that any convict who had fulfilled certain requirements, including exhibiting good behavior and participating actively in rehabilitation programs, was eligible for additional privileges. The official said the privileges were non-discriminatory and that the crime committed had no bearing on the decision to grant them.
By law, for convicts to be considered for parole, they must have served at least two thirds of their sentence, in addition to the requirements listed above. Nonetheless, some convicts have managed to trim off much larger portions off their prison terms.
The parolees include former Banten governor Ratu Atut Chosiyah and her brother Tubagus “Wawan” Chaeri Wardana, former Constitutional Court justice Patrialis Akbar, former religious affairs minister Suryadharma Ali and former Attorney General’s Office (AGO) prosecutor Pinangki Sirna Malasari.
