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Thousands of convicts enjoy Christmas sentence cut
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A convict is standing at a prison gate in Kendari Penitentiary in Kendari, Southeast Sulawesi, on Dec. 24. The government has granted its annual Christmas sentence cut to 6,707 convicts throughout the country. (Antara /Jojon)
T
he Law and Human Rights Ministry granted sentence reductions for more than 6,000 Protestant and Catholic convicts on Sunday for the occasion of Christmas.
The annual Christmas remission was given to 6,707 convicts this year, Minister Yasonna Laoly said on Sunday, who hoped that the sentence reduction would be seen as self-reflection by the convicts.
“Being imprisoned should not be seen only as suffering but also as introspection of ourselves to return to the right way,” Yasonna said as reported by kompas.com.
Seventy-nine convicts will soon be able to enjoy freedom as they will immediately be released from prison having obtained the remission. The convicts have received sentence reductions of between 15 days and two months depending on how long they have served their terms for.
Meanwhile, several prominent corruption convicts such as Otto Cornelius Kaligis who was serving time for bribery, former Bank Century owner Robert Tantular and graft convict Anggoro Widjojo were not eligible for the Christmas remission, a spokesperson for the ministry’s directorate general for penitentiaries, Akbar Hadi, said. They did not get their sentences reduced as they did not have the status of “justice collaborator” as required by the 2012 government regulation on remission, he added.
The government grants sentence reductions to convicts on special occasions such as religious holidays and Indonesia's Independence Day on August 17. There are currently 203,308 convicts being held in prisons and detention centers across the country, nearly double the facilities’ actual capacity of 118,952, ministry data show. (wnd/rin)
