T

he Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) said that it would bring the case of Ruben Pata Sambo, a convict on deathrow it says is wrongly accused of killing a family in South Sulawesi, to an international human rights forum.

Kontras coordinator Haris Azhar said on Saturday that rights groups planned discussions on what it referred to as a miscarriage of justice with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHRC), a commission supervising the implementation of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

The issue had become one of the most controversial issues from Asia in the Fifth World Congress against the Death Penalty in Madrid, Spain, which was also attended by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon last week, Haris said. 'It is crucial to discuss the issue with the UN because we want to uphold justice, also because our country has also ratified the covenant in the last eight years,' he said.

Kontras had campaigned on behalf of Ruben at the ongoing fifth World Congress Against the Death Penalty in Madrid.

Ruben, 72, and his son Markus Pata Sambo were alleged to have brutally murdered Andrias Pandin and three members of his family in Makale subdistrict, Tana Toraja in South Sulawesi in 2006.

The Makale District Court sentenced them to death a year later after several hearings, considered unfair by observers.

All appeals from the defendants have been rejected including a case review by the Supreme Court.

Ruben, Markus and his other son, Martinus Pata Sambo, and his cousin, Benedictus Budi Sopia'an, had been implicated in the case by Agustinus Sambo, the main suspect in the murder. Agustinus was also sentenced to death.

Ruben and his family denied that they knew Agustinus, and their convictions lost ground when Benedictus, who was also convicted, provided CCTV footage showing that he was at work at the time of the murders.

Agustinus then retracted his accusations against Ruben, Markus and Martinus, saying he had falsely accused them out of hatred for the family. Martinus was freed as a result.

Ruben and Markus are currently detained at Lowokwaru detention center in Malang, East Java, waiting execution.

Kontras deputy coordinator Sri Suparyati said that the group had filed requests for an audience with the Human Rights and Law Ministry, National Police, Supreme Court and Attorney General's Office, but received no response.

Kontras said Ruben and his son had been subjected to an unfair trial, which could be considered a violation of Article 14 of ICCPR.

Based on such violations, Indonesia could be pushed by the UN to work on this case Sri said.

Indonesia ratified the covenant in 2005 and adopted it into Law No. 12/2005 on civil and political rights.

Police in South Sulawesi denied the claim that they had gone after the wrong individuals.

South Sulawesi Police chief detective Sr. Comr. Djoko Hartawan maintained that investigators in the case only acted based on evidence.

'Other perpetrators in the case confessed that Ruben and his two sons were the main culprits who masterminded the murders. They are the ones who gave orders to the five other suspects to kill the three victims,' Djoko said in a press conference on Saturday.

Law and Human Rights Minister Amir Syamsudin said that he would look into the case.

Amir, however, said that a miscarriage of justice could have happened in the case of Ruben.

'During my days as a lawyer, I often came across cases where judges failed to bring justice. There are cases where innocent people were punished,' Amir told reporters in Jambi over the weekend. (koi)