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No clear legal umbrella to reinstate citizenship: Official
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Arcandra Tahar speaks to journalists at the Office of the Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister on Aug. 9. (Antara/Akbar Nugroho Gumay)
A
n official has admitted that the Law and Human Rights Ministry does not have a clear legal umbrella for reinstating the citizenship of Indonesians who have lost their nationality, however, the Citizenship Law holds to the basic principal that the country does not acknowledge statelessness.
The principal was used by the ministry to reinstate the citizenship of Arcandra Tahar, the former energy and mineral resources minister, said Freddy Harris, the ministry’s director general for public law administration in Jakarta on Wednesday.
Arcandra used to have dual citizenship, Indonesian and US, which is illegal under Indonesian law, but he said that he had given up his US citizenship on Aug. 15.
Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly said it took some time for the ministry to decide on Arcandra’s fate.
He further said that according to the Citizenship Law, he could not deprive Arcandra of his Indonesian citizenship as the law stipulated that officials who cause a citizen to lose his right to citizenship will be sentenced to up to three years’ imprisonment.
Hence, the ministry had decided to issue a ministerial decree, stating that Arcandra was an Indonesian citizen, Yasonna said. (wnd/bbn)
