MAKASSAR - Over the last few weeks we have witnessed, or perhaps been involved in, a fierce debate about drugs and how to deal with drug abuse, drug dealing and the accompanying issues in Indonesia. The polemic in particular turned emotional, since drug use is a sensitive issue. The controversy was triggered by the execution of nine convicted drug traffickers, including foreign nationals, and the handing down of death sentences to 10 others shortly thereafter. The strict law enforcement has sparked a diplomatic row between Indonesia and several countries whose citizens were or will be executed. [continues 857 words]
Life sentences for drug convicts have proven to be ineffective in Indonesia. After many years of delaying the execution of drug convicts - the execution of Australians Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan has been postponed for almost a decade - drug trafficking still lingers. Life sentences never prevent drug traffickers from continuing their businesses. The case of the Nusakambangan prisoners Sartoni and Sutrisno was an obvious example that drug trafficking gets worse day after day. It is strange that they could manage such prohibited businesses from the prison. [continues 332 words]
Jakarta (AFP) - An Indonesian funeral home has reportedly prepared at least 10 caskets for police ahead of the planned execution of death-row convicts, including two Australian drug smugglers whose sentences have strained the country's relations with Canberra. The report came as Indonesia announced yesterday that it had on Friday night deported Ms Candace Sutton, a reporter for Australia's Daily Mail, as she had interviewed without a proper visa a relative of one of the Australian convicts in the coastal town of Cilacap. [continues 199 words]
Prisoners in Bali's Kerobokan jail are petrified they will be abandoned by the world after their mentors and advocates Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran are killed this month. While the art, computer, bible and cooking classes co-ordinated by Sukumaran and Chan are well documented, few on the outside are aware of the advocacy role the men have played in the prison over many years. The two Australians use their extensive network of supporters to source food, medical supplies, money and other goods for fellow prisoners. [continues 583 words]
It's hard for me to comprehend how beautiful ancient Asian cultures, which have lived harmoniously with the earth for centuries, got sucked into this shameful and unholy American-led "war on drugs". It's actually a war on any drug that is not owned by the pharmaceutical industry - Big Pharma - and of course that includes nature's best pain-relieving plants: the opium poppy, cannabis and the coca plant. Now look at the illegal trade in heroin, pot and coke. [continues 134 words]
Aceh might be famous for its brutal application of Islamic sharia law, but it's also where a certain intoxicating weed has been getting people high for generations. Marijuana sales once helped fund the 30- year war waged by separatist rebels and when they descended from their mountain strongholds after the 2005 peace deal, the plantations remained. To this day, two lucrative cash crops - coffee and " ganja" - provide a healthy income in Aceh's rural hinterland. In a pungent smoke haze at a secret location in the capital, Banda Aceh, an enterprising group of young stoners is combining the two into what could perhaps be viewed as the essence of Aceh. [continues 431 words]
The country's two largest Muslim organizations, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah, have given their support to President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's call for the swift execution of death-row inmates despite criticism from human rights campaigners. Jokowi paid a visit to the headquarters of the two organizations in Jakarta on Wednesday in his efforts to rally support for his tough stance on drug convicts. Citing the Koran and the State Constitution, NU chairman Said Aqil Siradj said drug trafficking was a serious crime punishable by death. [continues 372 words]
With the school and summer holidays approaching, the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) Bali office says it will work closely with the police, airport and port managements and related agencies to foil any drug smuggling and trafficking attempts in Bali. "The holiday season [between June and August] has not yet arrived but we have already dealt with two major drug cases within the space of a week," BNN Bali chief I Gusti Ketut Budhiarta told journalists over the weekend. Budhiarta said many drug smuggling cases in Bali occurred during the holiday period. [continues 468 words]
With the school and summer holidays approaching, the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) Bali office says it will work closely with the police, airport and port managements and related agencies to foil any drug smuggling and trafficking attempts in Bali. "The holiday season [between June and August] has not yet arrived but we have already dealt with two major drug cases within the space of a week," BNN Bali chief I Gusti Ketut Budhiarta told journalists over the weekend. Budhiarta said many drug smuggling cases in Bali occurred during the holiday period. [continues 520 words]
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is again under fire for going soft on drug convicts following the decision to parole Schapelle Corby. The Australian would have been eligible for parole after serving two-thirds of her original sentence, in 2017, if not for a five-year sentence reduction granted by Yudhoyono in 2012 and for 30 months of remissions she received over the years. The announcement of the parole came about two weeks after convicted French drug trafficker Michael Loic Blanc was released after he was granted parole in November. [continues 456 words]
Australian drug trafficker Schapelle Corby is expected to learn Friday whether Indonesian authorities have agreed to grant her parole after more than nine years behind bars on the resort island of Bali. Australian drug smuggler Schapelle Corby is pictured on April 22, 2008 inside Kerobokan prison in Denpasar on the Indonesian resort island of Bali Corby, whose case attracted huge media attention and public sympathy in Australia, is due to find out her fate in the afternoon when Indonesian Justice Minister Amir Syamsuddin announces his decision in Jakarta. [continues 410 words]
Indonesian justice minister who will decide whether Schapelle Corby will be released on parole from a Bali prison says the Australian will get no special treatment. After nine years behind bars for drug smuggling, Corby, 36, is inching towards parole. Her case was heard in Jakarta last week, but it's not known if the recommendation to Indonesia's Justice Minister Amir Syamsuddin was for or against parole. Syamsuddin told reporters in Jakarta on Wednesday that Corby's case is one of hundreds of requests, and she will get no special treatment. [continues 272 words]
When asked how Corby was likely to celebrate, ex-Corby family lawyer Kerry Smith-Douglas said she'll probably pop a cork of champagne and roll up a big marijuana joint the size of a cigar and kick back and enjoy herself. Visibly rattled, Today host Karl Stefanovic then asked, "You haven't been smoking yourself this morning, have you?" A laughing Ms replied: "My eyes are red, I know". After some nervous chuckles a clearly embarrassed and concerned Stefanovic quickly turned the interview to more serious matters, asking whether the Corby case had been poorly handled by lawyers from the outset. [continues 141 words]
Nine's telemovie on drug smuggler Schapelle Corby has angered her supporters. A father with white scraggly whiskers lightly nicotine-stained by the make-up artist and glued to his chin looks up at his daughter, a one-time beauty school student in a green dress seated before him in a prison garden. Her eyebrows are shaved down each day rather than plucked, so the actor playing Australia's most famous contemporary female prisoner, who was sentenced to 20 years in jail in 2005 after being convicted for smuggling marijuana into Bali in a surf body board bag, can easily regrow her brows once filming finishes. [continues 638 words]
Law and Human Rights Minister Amir Syamsuddin said on Wednesday that he would rule on Australian drug trafficker Schapelle Corby's parole application this week, raising speculation that Corby could be released soon. Corby was arrested at Ngurah Rai International Airport in Denpasar, Bali, in October 2004 for smuggling 4.2 kilograms of marijuana into Indonesia. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison and is currently detained at Kerobokan Penitentiary in Bali. Amir said he would review the correctional board's recommendation, which completed its meeting on Jan. 30 and had given recommendations for 1,772 parole requests in total. [continues 384 words]
High-profile Australian drug trafficker Schapelle Corby will learn within days whether she will be granted parole from an Indonesian jail following a lengthy bid to win early release, a minister said yesterday. Indonesian Justice Minister Amir Syamsuddin said the 36-year-old's application was among a large batch he would decide on by today although he stressed she would not get "special treatment". Corby, whose case has attracted huge publicity in Australia, was sentenced to 20 years in jail in 2005 after being caught trying to smuggle 4.1 kilograms of marijuana into the resort island of Bali. [continues 261 words]
Schapelle Corby approaches final hurdles for parole bid, awaits Indonesia's political approval by Michael Bachelard, Indonesia correspondent for Fairfax Media Schapelle Corby has cleared two of the bureaucratic hurdles standing between her and her parole bid, and has only two more to go before she can be released from Kerobokan prison. A spokesman for the Indonesian Corrections department, Ayub Suratman, has confirmed that the Australian government has issued the convicted drug smuggler a new passport at the request of the country's immigration department. [continues 342 words]
The mind-set of law enforcers needs to be changed to make them understand that not all drug users are criminals and that they need rehabilitation instead of imprisonment, says a Supreme Court judge. "Users aren't criminals, and the mind-set of law enforcers such as police and prosecutors needs to change," Justice Surya Jaya said at a discussion in Jakarta on Wednesday. "The process in handling drug abusers isn't implemented well, and that's why we're seeing so many of them jailed." [continues 319 words]
Indonesia faces a long and hard battle against drugs. In recent months, the police have arrested several people who were allegedly trying to smuggle drugs into the country. The nation's war against drugs must be fought on all fronts. The police are at the forefront but schools, families and the judicial system must all play their part. Unless we have strong laws to deter the sale of drugs, it will be an uphill battle. Currently, there are 3.8 million to 4.2 million drug users in Indonesia. If we fail to tackle this problem head on, this number will grow, putting at risk our youth and the future of this country. We must stop drug trafficking to prevent Indonesia from becoming a major market for drug dealers. [continues 202 words]
Anti-narcotics officers have thrown drug addicts a lifeline: Turn yourself in and you will receive rehabilitation and be spared prosecuted. Comr. Gen. Gories Mere, the head of the National Narcotics Agency (BNN), said on Sunday that the offer would be valid throughout June to mark the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, which falls on June 26, and the anniversary of the establishment of the National Police, on July 1. "Those who come in to report their drug use won't be prosecuted but will be placed in rehab" at the BNN's rehabilitation center in Bogor, he said. [continues 150 words]
Inside Indonesia
