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Courts continue to issue death sentences despite no executions
Despite its seven-year streak in not executing its death row inmates, Indonesia last year issued 114 death sentences, a report by Amnesty International has found.
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Human rights activists stage a rally in Kota Tua, West Jakarta, in this file photo to commemorate World Day against the Death Penalty. (The Jakarta Post/Vellen Augustine)
D
espite its seven-year streak in not executing any death row inmates, Indonesia last year issued 114 death sentences, a report by Amnesty International has found.
Eighty-six percent of last year’s death sentences were for drug-related offenses, the report found.
These findings have remained consistent with data from previous years, which revealed that judges had meted out more than 110 death sentences every year since 2020 and that an overwhelming majority of death row inmates have been sentenced for drug-related crimes.
“The last execution in Indonesia was in July 2016. Yet the judges in the country continue to hand down the death penalty on a frequent basis,” said a statement released by Amnesty International’s Indonesia office on Wednesday.
Indonesia drew condemnation from the global community when it executed 18 death row inmates including foreigners, between 2015 and 2016, following President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s declaration of a war on drugs at the beginning of his administration. Many analysts cited the global backlash as the primary reason for Indonesia putting the execution of death row convicts on hold since 2017.
Indonesia is categorized by Amnesty International as a “retentionist” country with regard to its capital punishment law, meaning that it issues the death sentence for ordinary crimes like drug-related offenses.
Read also: New penal code offers hope of abolishing death penalty
