Global Courant 2023-04-14 18:44:03
JAKARTA – Indonesian President Joko Widodo has granted leniency to a woman who spent more than 20 years on death row for drug smuggling, a move Amnesty calls “unprecedented”.
Merri Utami, 49, was sentenced to death in 2002 by a court in Tangerang, west of the capital Jakarta, after she was found guilty of attempting to smuggle heroin into Indonesia. She claimed she was tricked into becoming a drug runner.
“We appreciate this leniency decision. Finally, the president wants to open his eyes that drug crimes are not just about drug lords and…harsh punishments,” said Ms. Aisya Humaida, one of Utami’s lawyers.
Usman Hamid, executive director of Amnesty International Indonesia, welcomed the decision to grant clemency to a death row drug addict, calling it “unprecedented” under Widodo’s government.
“This is important in demonstrating that there is no relationship, let alone a causal relationship, between the death penalty and the decrease in drug crimes,” said Hamid.
Utami’s lawyers were considering next steps to try to further reduce her sentence, Humaida said.
Mr Widodo pardoned Utami nearly seven years after she first sent a plea to the president.
In 2014, Mr Widodo declared a “drug emergency” shortly after taking power, calling for tougher sentences for drug offenses and reinstatement of executions.
However, his government has begun to adjust its hardline policies, human rights lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis said.
“There is a change in policy,” he said. “The National Narcotics Agency has always actively advocated the death penalty for drug offenders. Now (they) are focused on rehabilitation.
Indonesia has issued at least 114 death sentences by 2021, bringing the death row size to more than 500, including a number of foreigners, according to a report by Amnesty International.
According to the report, as of 2021, 82 percent of all recorded death sentences were for drug-related crimes.
Utami was a stone’s throw from her execution in 2016, but authorities spared her and nine other convicts at the last minute.
Another female convict, Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipino, was also due to face the firing squad in 2015, but was adjourned after a woman suspected of recruiting her was arrested in the Philippines.
She was arrested in Indonesia in 2010 for carrying a suitcase filled with 2.6 kg of heroin, and was later sentenced to death.
The Philippine government sought clemency for Veloso in 2022, the last high-level attempt to save her life. AFP
