Indonesian court sentences French drug smuggler to death

Yahoo – AFP, May 20, 2019

Felix Dorfin was arrested in September carrying a suitcase filled with about three
kilograms of drugs, including ecstasy and amphetamines (AFP Photo/ARSYAD ALI)

An Indonesian court sentenced Frenchman Felix Dorfin to death for drug smuggling on Monday, in a shock verdict after prosecutors asked for a 20-year jail term.

Dorfin, 35, was arrested in September carrying a suitcase filled with about three kilograms (6.6 pounds) of drugs including ecstasy and amphetamines at the airport in Lombok, a holiday island next to Bali where foreigners are routinely arrested on drugs charges.

Indonesia has some of the world's strictest drug laws -- including death by firing squad for some drug traffickers and it has executed foreigners in the past.

While prosecutors had not asked for the death penalty, Indonesian courts have been known to go beyond their demands.

"After finding Felix Dorfin legally and convincingly guilty of importing narcotics ... (he) is sentenced to the death penalty," presiding judge Isnurul Syamsul Arif told the court.

He cited Dorfin's involvement in an international drug syndicate and the amount of drugs in his possession as aggravating factors.

"The defendant's actions could potentially do damage to the younger generation," Arif added.

The Frenchman made headlines in January when he escaped from a police detention centre and spent nearly two weeks on the run before he was captured.

A female police officer was arrested for allegedly helping Dorfin escape from jail in exchange for money.

It was not clear if the jailbreak played any role in Monday's stiffer-than-expected sentence.

Dorfin, who is from Bethune in northern France, sat impassively through much of the hearing in front of three judges, as a translator scribbled notes beside him.

He said little as he walked past reporters to a holding cell after the sentencing.

"Dorfin was shocked," the Frenchman's lawyer Deny Nur Indra told AFP.

"He didn't expect this at all because prosecutors only asked for 20 years."

The lawyer said he would appeal against the sentence, describing his client as a "victim" who did not know the exact contents of what he was carrying.

"If he had known, he wouldn't have brought it here," Indra added.

In 2015, Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran -- the accused ringleaders of the Bali Nine heroin smuggling gang -- were executed by firing squad in Indonesia.

The case sparked diplomatic outrage and a call to abolish the death penalty.

The Bali Nine gang's only female member was released from jail last year, while some others remain in prison.

A number of foreigners in Indonesia are on death row including cocaine-smuggling British grandmother Lindsay Sandiford and Serge Atlaoui, a Frenchman who has been on death row since 2007.

Last year, eight Taiwanese drug smugglers were sentenced to death by an Indonesian court after being caught with around a tonne of crystal methamphetamine.

Indonesia reviewing early release for Bali bombing-linked cleric

Yahoo – AFP, Dessy SAGITA, 22 January 2019

Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir was convicted for 15 years in 2011 for
helping fund a paramilitary group

Plans to free a radical cleric linked to the deadly Bali bombings are under review, Indonesia has said, after the surprise decision drew sharp criticism.

Abu Bakar Bashir, once synonymous with militant Islam in Indonesia, was tied to a terror network behind the 2002 attacks that killed more than 200 people, mostly foreign tourists.

Last week, Indonesian president Joko Widodo said he had given the green light for the early release of Bashir -- believed to have been a key figure in militant group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI).

Widodo said the 80-year-old preacher was "old and sick".

The plan was slammed both at home and abroad, with objections across Indonesian social media and from Australian leader Scott Morrison, who warned that Bashir was still a threat.

Dozens of Australians were killed in the Bali attacks.

In an apparent backtrack on Monday, Indonesia's Chief Security Minister Wiranto said the president had ordered a "thorough and comprehensive study" of Bashir's release from prison.

"We can't act hastily or spontaneously," the minister told reporters.

He did not say when a final decision would be made.

On Tuesday, Widodo said Bashir must agree to pledge his loyalty to the state in order to win parole -- something the cleric has previously said he would not do.

"This is parole -- not an absolute release. These conditions must be fulfilled," the president told reporters.

Indonesian forces patrol the perimeter of Gunung Sindur prison in Bogor 

where radical cleric Abu Bakar Bashiris jailed

Bashir was sentenced to 15 years in jail in 2011 for helping fund a paramilitary group training in the conservative Islamic province of Aceh.

The firebrand preacher was previously jailed over the Bali bombings but that conviction was quashed on appeal. He has repeatedly denied involvement in terror attacks.

Bashir's lawyer Achmad Michdan questioned the apparent official change of heart.

"We have no problem with (the review) but people might wonder why would they announce it in the first place," Michdan told AFP.

Widodo had cited "humanitarian reasons" for agreeing to the release of the elderly preacher, sparking a torrent of criticism on Indonesian social media.

"This whole story is stupid beyond belief," one Twitter user wrote.

Bashir "murdered hundreds of people. They don't get to be with their families, but he does?"

'Politically deaf'

Analysts questioned the timing of the original announcement, just months before Widodo -- better known by his nickname Jokowi -- seeks re-election to lead the world's biggest Muslim-majority nation.

While Indonesia has long been praised for its moderate practice of religion, the political influence of Islamist hardliners has grown in recent years with some viewing Bashir as a hero.

"Why did Jokowi choose to act now, when it was inevitable that he would be accused of trying to score political points?" said Sidney Jones at the Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict.

"It makes the president seem either Machiavellian enough to do anything in exchange for a few votes, or so politically deaf and blind that he had no idea of the consequences."

The 2002 bombings prompted Jakarta to beef up counter-terror co-operation with the US and Australia.

"We have been very clear about the need to ensure that, as part of our joint counter-terrorism efforts... that Abu Bakar Bashir would not be in any position... to influence or incite anything," Australia's Morrison was quoted as saying.

Al-Qaeda-linked JI was founded by a handful of exiled Indonesian militants in Malaysia in the 1980s, and grew to include cells across Southeast Asia.

As well as the 2002 Bali bombings, the radical group was blamed for a 2003 car bomb at the JW Marriott hotel in Jakarta and a suicide car bomb the following year outside the Australian embassy.

Several militants convicted over their involvement in the Bali bombings have been executed while two others, including Malaysian Noordin Mohammed Top, were killed in police raids in 2009 and 2010.

Police hostage crisis at Indonesia jail over: officials

Yahoo – AFP, 10 May 2018

The raid secured the release of the police hostage and no further casualties were reported

A hostage crisis involving Islamist prisoners at a high-security jail outside Jakarta has been resolved nearly two days after a deadly riot broke out at the prison, Indonesian officials said Thursday.

Hundreds of police and armoured vehicles were deployed to rescue a police officer taken hostage by inmates after chaos erupted late Tuesday at the facility inside the Mobile Police Brigade headquarters in Depok, leaving five officers and an inmate dead.

In the pre-dawn operation, 145 prisoners "surrendered unconditionally" and the hostage was released with no further casualties reported, said Chief Security Minister Wiranto, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.

Another ten inmates holding out against police later surrendered after tear gas was used, according to Wiranto.

Several blasts heard near the prison on Thursday morning were caused by police destroying home-made bombs created by the prisoners, police said.

Rioting broke out after several prisoners demanded they be given food sent to them by their families and managed to grab some of their jailers' firearms in the ensuing fracas.

Some of the inmates involved in the clashes were Islamist militants jailed on terror-related charges, according to police.

Five officers and an inmate were killed in the deadly riot

The Islamic State group was quick to claim responsibility for the riot through its Amaq News Agency, but authorities rejected that claim.

Among the facility's prisoners is Aman Abdurrahman, an Islamic radical jailed for orchestrating an attack in Jakarta in 2016 that left eight people dead.

Former Jakarta governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, who was jailed for two years for blasphemy after losing a re-election bid, is also held in the jail.

Abdurrahman and Purnama, better known as Ahok, are not housed in the part of the prison where the riot broke out.

Indonesia's overcrowded prisons are notorious for their poor conditions and outbreaks of violence.

Two years ago, nearly 500 inmates broke out from a prison after complaining about overcrowding and extortion.

Hostage crisis at Indonesian high-security jail finally over 2 days after riot killed 5 policemen and inmates took 1 officer captive https://t.co/tcWCWfTKKc pic.twitter.com/oR5yzjc2Li

— AFP news agency (@AFP) May 10, 2018

US man on the run after escaping notorious Bali prison

Yahoo – AFP, December 11, 2017

The pair made a break from the Indonesian resort island's main prison by cutting a
hole in the roof with a hacksaw, authorities said. It was not clear how they obtained
the tool (AFP Photo/SONNY TUMBELAKA)

Denpasar (Indonesia) (AFP) - A US man convicted on drugs charges escaped Bali's notorious Kerobokan jail in an early Monday morning jailbreak with another American prisoner who was caught almost immediately, an official said.

The pair made a break from the Indonesian resort island's main prison by cutting a hole in the roof with a hacksaw, authorities said. It was not clear how they obtained the tool.

Police are now scouring the palm-fringed island and handing out pictures of escapee Chrishan Beasley, a 32-year-old arrested in August for carrying five grams of hashish.

Foreigners are regularly arrested for drugs offences on Bali.

Beasley was awaiting a sentencing in his case. It was not immediately clear how much jail time he was facing, but Indonesia has some of the world's toughest drugs laws, with the death penalty available in some trafficking cases.

Beasley's accomplice in the escape, convicted thief Paul Anthony Hoffman, 57, was apprehended before he could make good on the escape.

"Paul was immediately recaptured by the locals who saw him trying to escape while Chrishan, who climbed up before him, managed to run away," Kerobokan chief warden Tonny Nainggolan told AFP.

Hoffman is serving a 20-month sentence for robbing a number of convenience stores at knifepoint.

Kerobokan houses some of the country's most notorious and high-profile inmates, including members of the so-called Bali Nine which plotted to bring heroin into Australia via Bali. Two members of the group have been executed.

Jailbreaks are common in Indonesia, where inmates are often held in unsanitary conditions at overcrowded and poorly guarded prisons.

In May, more than 200 inmates staged a mass breakout from an overcrowded prison on Sumatra island, while last year a convicted child murderer escaped from jail by putting on a woman's Muslim veil, make-up and sunglasses and walking out past unsuspecting guards.

Riyadh's palatial Ritz-Carlton has reportedly morphed into a makeshift prison after the kingdom's unprecedented crackdown on its coddled elite

Riyadh's palatial Ritz-Carlton has reportedly morphed into a makeshift prison after the kingdom's unprecedented crackdown on its coddled elite https://t.co/F3DQZMuHCu

— AFP news agency (@AFP) November 10, 2017

Vatican to open its doors to 1,000 prisoners

Yahoo – AFP, 3 November 2016

One thousand prisoners will attend a mass lead by Pope Francis at the Vatican

One thousand prisoners -- including some lifers -- will take part in a special event at the Vatican this weekend, along with 3,000 family members, prison staff and volunteers.

The prisoners from 12 countries will have the opportunity on Saturday to confess and walk through the "Holy Door" at Saint Peter's Basilica, a Jubilee tradition by which Catholics can ask forgiveness for their sins.

On Sunday, they will attend a mass lead by Pope Francis. The Argentine pontiff regularly meets prisoners -- both in Italy and on his trips abroad -- but this is the first time so many inmates will be received at the Vatican.

The convicts are expected to come from Britain, Italy, Latvia, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Spain, the US, South Africa, Sweden and Portugal.

While some are on probation, others are currently under house arrest or are serving life sentences and will be escorted by security details, the Vatican said.

At the mass, they will hear the stories of four people -- including one inmate who converted and will speak alongside their victim, the brother of someone who was murdered and had to learn forgiveness, and a prison guard.

The service will be accompanied by the dulcet tones of a choir of prisoners from Bologna, while the communion wafers will be special ones made by detainees in a lockup in Milan.

Next weekend the pope will hold a similar event for the "socially marginalised" and homeless. It will be the last before the Jubilee winds up. "Holy Doors" around the world close on November 13 and the pontiff will officially declare the year over on November 20.

Related Article:

Pope: 'Death penalty represents failure' – no 'humane' way to kill a person

Indonesia executes foreign convicts despite protests

Yahoo – AFP, Muhammad Azka, July 28, 2016

Indonesian men light candles during an anti-execution rally in front of the
presidential palace in Jakarta on July 28, 2016 (AFP Photo/Bay Ismoyo)

Cilacap (Indonesia) (AFP) - Indonesia Friday executed four drug convicts, three of them foreigners, by firing squad, an official said, drawing swift condemnation as Jakarta pushes on with its tough campaign of capital punishment.

Ten others expected to have faced the firing squad, including nationals from Pakistan, India and Zimbabwe as well as Indonesians, were not put to death but officials said they would be executed at a later stage.

Authorities did not give a reason for the reprieve, but the prison island where they were expected to be executed in outdoor clearings was hit by a major storm as the other sentences were carried out.

The executions, which saw an Indonesian and three Nigerians face the firing squad, were the first in the country since April last year when authorities put to death eight drug convicts, including two Australians.

President Joko Widodo has defended dramatically ramping up the use of capital punishment, saying that Indonesia is fighting a war on drugs and traffickers must be heavily punished.

Noor Rachmad, deputy attorney general for general crimes, said the latest executions were "done not in order to take lives but to stop evil intentions, and the evil act of drug trafficking".

He added that "the rest (of the executions) will be carried out in stages", saying that the timings had not yet been decided.

Amnesty International condemned the executions, with the group's Rafendi Djamin labelling them "a deplorable act".

"Any executions that are still to take place must be halted immediately. The injustice already done cannot be reversed, but there is still hope that it won't be compounded," he said.

The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the European Union had also voiced opposition to the plan in recent days.

Friday's executions, which happened at 12:45 am (1745 GMT Thursday), came after a day of frenetic activity, with distraught relatives travelling to Nusakambangan island to say farewells to their loved ones and ambulances carrying coffins over to the heavily guarded penal colony.

Relatives carry photographs of Pakistani national Zulfiqar Ali, who was 

sentenced to death in 2005 for heroin possession in Indonesia, during a 

protest in Lahore on July 28, 2016 (AFP Photo/Arif Ali)

Execution drive

The executed Indonesian was named as Freddy Budiman, while the three Nigerians were: Seck Osmane, Humphrey Jefferson Ejike Eleweke and Michael Titus Igweh.

Eleweke's lawyer, Afif Abdul Qoyim, told AFP the execution should not have gone ahead as his client this week filed a legal appeal.

"When this process in not respected, that means that this is no longer a country that upholds the law, nor human rights," he said.

Two people whose cases had raised high-profile international concern among rights groups were not executed.

The first was Pakistani Zulfiqar Ali, whom rights groups say was beaten into confessing to the crime of heroin possession, leading to his 2005 death sentence.

Syed Zahid Raza, the deputy Pakistani ambassador in Indonesia, hailed his reprieve as a victory and said it was due to diplomatic efforts in Jakarta and Islamabad.

The other was Indonesian woman Merri Utami, who was caught with heroin in her bag as she came through Jakarta airport and claims she was duped into becoming a drug mule.

At Cilacap, the city closest to Nusakambangan, family members were initially shocked to learn on Thursday morning their relatives would be executed in a matter of hours, having initially thought it would take place a day later.

Some distressed relatives protested their loved ones' innocence, while 10 women's rights activists rallying in support of Utami were detained.

It was the third batch of executions under Widodo, and means 18 drug convicts -- mostly foreigners -- have been put to death since he became leader in 2014.

His execution drive has shocked the international community and disappointed activists, particularly as hopes were high that Widodo, seen as a fresh face in a political world dominated by figures from Indonesia's authoritarian past, would improve the country's rights record.

'Implementation Day' for Iran nuclear deal as prisoners freed

Yahoo – AFP, Simon Sturdee with Arthur MacMillan in Tehran, January 16, 2016

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (L) and EU foreign policy chief
 Federica Mogherini hold a joint press conference during the E3/EU+3 and Iran talks
 at the International Atomic Energy Agency headquarters in Vienna on January 16,
2016 (AFP Photo/Joe Klamar)

Vienna (AFP) - The historic nuclear accord between Iran and major powers entered into force Saturday as the UN confirmed that Tehran has shrunk its atomic programme and as painful sanctions were lifted on the Islamic republic.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said its "inspectors on the ground verified that Iran has carried out all measures" agreed under the July 14 agreement.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, representing the six powers, said that as a result "multilateral and national economic and financial sanctions related to Iran's nuclear programme are lifted".

US Secretary of State John Kerry 

holds a press conference in Vienna 

on January 16, 2016 (AFP Photo/

Joe Klamar)

"All sides remain firmly convinced that this historic deal is both strong and fair, and that it meets the requirements of all," Mogherini said in Vienna in a joint statement with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

"This achievement clearly demonstrates that with political will, perseverance, and through multilateral diplomacy, we can solve the most difficult issues and find practical solutions that are effectively implemented," they said.

The so-called "Implementation Day" for the accord also followed news of a prisoner swap between Iran and the United States in another sign of thawing relations between the two foes since the July 14 agreement.

The steps taken by Iran, combined with ultra-close IAEA inspections, extend to at least a year -- from a few months previously -- how long Iran would need to make one nuclear bomb's worth of fissile material.

They include slashing by two-thirds its uranium centrifuges, reducing its stockpile of uranium -- enough before the deal for several bombs -- and removing the core of the Arak reactor which could have given Iran weapons-grade plutonium.

Iran has always denied wanting nuclear weapons, saying its activities are exclusively for peaceful purposes such as power generation.

In what was hailed as a momentous diplomatic breakthrough, the Vienna agreement was nailed down after two years of rollercoaster negotiations following the June 2013 election of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.

The highly complex deal drew a line under a standoff dating back to 2002 marked by failed diplomatic initiatives, ever-tighter sanctions, defiant nuclear expansion by Iran and threats of military action.

In addition it put Iran and the United States on the road to better relations some 35 years after the Islamic revolution that toppled the US-backed shah, and at a particularly explosive time in the Middle East.

The four Iranian-American detainees to be freed by Iran included Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian and Saeed Abedini, a pastor from Idaho, a senior US official said Saturday.

The others were Amir Hekmati and Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari, Washington said. A fifth American, identified as Matthew Trevitick, was also to be released as part of a different process.

In exchange Washington said it had granted clemency to seven Iranians, six of whom were dual US-Iranian citizens, and dropped charges against 14 more.

Daggers drawn

The agreement, heralded as US President Barack Obama's biggest major foreign policy triumph, has by no means been universally cheered, however.

Obama's Republican opponents charge that it fails to do enough to ensure Iran will never get the bomb, a complaint shared by Israel, Iran's arch foe widely assumed to have nuclear weapons itself.

Sunni Saudi Arabia, Iran's other great regional rival, is also alarmed at the prospect of warmer US-Iran ties and of predominantly Shiite Iran, newly flush with oil revenues, increasing its influence.

Already Saudi Arabia and Iran, fighting a proxy war in Yemen and key players in the Syrian conflict, are at daggers drawn following Saudi Arabia's execution of a Shiite cleric in early January and the subsequent ransacking of the Saudi embassy in Tehran.

Iran's imminent return to the oil market has also contributed to the sharp slide in the price of crude to 12-year lows of under $30 per barrel this week, putting Saudi Arabia's public finances under strain.

The lifting of sanctions on Iran is "going to put 500,000 barrels per day more on the market", said James Williams of WTRG Economics. Some analysts believe $20 oil is on the horizon.

Bumpy road

The deal has more than a decade to run, which is likely to be a bumpy road, experts say, not least if more hardline governments take power in Tehran or Washington.

FM #Steinmeier on #IranDeal #ImplementationDay: „Historic success for diplomacy.“ #IranTalks #JCPOA pic: archive pic.twitter.com/sB7W3PwoBn

— GermanForeignOffice (@GermanyDiplo) January 16, 2016

#ImplementationDay--I thank God for this blessing & bow to the greatness of the patient nation of Iran. Congrats on this glorious victory!

— Hassan Rouhani (@HassanRouhani) January 16, 2016

"First, yesterday marked a milestone in preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon." —@POTUS #IranDeal https://t.co/YPpOVULMt2

— The Iran Deal (@TheIranDeal) January 17, 2016

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Iran, major powers trumpet historic nuclear deal

Obama credits 'diplomacy' for effective nuclear deal with Iran
Iran's Rouhani says nuclear deal to bring peace
US to pay Iran $1.7 bn in debt and interest: Kerry

US Secretary of State John Kerry speaks to journalists about his negotiations

 with Iran upon his arrival from Vienna at Joint Base Andrews on January 17,

2016 (AFP Photo/Kevin Lamarque)

Minister: Indonesia Putting Executions on Hold to Focus on Economy

Jakarta Globe, Basten Gokkon, 19 Nov 2015

Luhut Pandjaitan, the coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs,
 told reporters in Jakarta on Thursday that President Joko Widodo would not
authorize any more executions pending efforts to revive the economy, which is
growing at its slowest pace in six years. (Reuters Photo/Darren Whiteside)

Jakarta. The Indonesian government has announced a moratorium on carrying out the death penalty in order to focus on improving a sputtering economy.

Luhut Pandjaitan, the coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs, told reporters in Jakarta on Thursday that President Joko Widodo would not authorize any more executions pending efforts to revive the economy, which is growing at its slowest pace in six years.

“The government needs to focus on Indonesia's economy first,” Luhut said, without giving a time frame for the suspension of executions.

The Joko administration has drawn widespread condemnation from the international community for reviving the death penalty that the previous administration of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had largely shelved.

Under Joko, Indonesia has this year put to death 14 people convicted of drug offenses, 12 of them foreign nationals, including a mentally ill Brazilian and two Australians who had reformed and were providing classes and ministry for fellow prisoners.

Related Articles:

Germany calls for global abolition of death penalty on world awareness day

Early release for thousands of US drug offenders

Pope calls for global abolition of death penalty
Pope: 'Death penalty represents failure' – no 'humane' way to kill a person

Tigers, piranhas may join crocodile guards at Indonesia jail

Yahoo – AFP, 13 Nov 2015

Indonesia's anti-drugs czar wants tigers and piranhas as prison guards

(AFP Photo/Romeo Gacad)

Jakarta (AFP) - After sparking ridicule with a proposal to build a prison island for drug convicts surrounded by crocodiles, Indonesia's anti-drugs czar has now gone further -- revealing on Friday he also wants tigers and piranhas as guards.

In an idea that seemed to come straight out of a James Bond film, Budi Waseso this week unveiled the prison island plan, explaining that crocodiles can't be bribed by drug traffickers seeking to escape jail.

He embarked on a tour of the country to find "the most ferocious type of crocodile" to guard the jail, which is to be for drug convicts who have been sentenced to death.

Budi Waseso embarked on a tour of

 Indonesia to find "the most ferocious type

 of crocodile" to guard a new jail (AFP Photo/

Romeo Gacad)

The head of the national anti-drugs agency faced widespread mockery over the plan. But far from backing down, Waseso said Friday he was considering the addition of man-eating piranhas and tigers as guards.

"It is also possible we may use piranhas, and because the number of personnel at the prison might not be enough, we can also use tigers," he was cited as saying in local reports.

Indonesia already has some of the toughest anti-narcotics laws in the world, including death by firing squad for traffickers, and sparked international uproar in April when it put to death seven foreign drug convicts.

But President Joko Widodo has insisted that drug dealers must face death as the country is fighting a "national emergency" due to rising narcotics use.

Despite the harsh laws, Indonesia's corrupt prison system is awash with drugs, and inmates and jail officials are regularly arrested for narcotics offences.

Anti-drugs agency spokesman Slamet Pribadi confirmed Waseso was also weighing the possibility of tigers and piranhas as guards, and hit back at suggestions the prison island plan was a joke.

"This is serious, this is not a joke," Pribadi told AFP.

"Drug trafficking is an extraordinary crime and therefore the fight must also be extraordinary, we cannot fight the usual way."

The idea is still in the early stages, and the agency is in discussions with the justice ministry about it. Neither a location nor a potential opening date has been decided.

The plan has echoes of the Bond movie "Live and Let Die", when the secret agent escapes from an island surrounded by crocodiles by using the reptiles as stepping stones.

Dutch PM regrets Indonesian war victims feel misunderstood, but stops short of apology

DutchNews, August 17, 2015

Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte said on Saturday he regrets the fact that Indonesian victims of the Japanese invasion during World War II feel misunderstood, but stopped short of apologising.

‘The Indonesian people still feel misunderstood because of a lack of understanding by others for the horrors of the war in Asia. I regret that,’ he said during the annual remembrance ceremony in The Hague on Saturday.

‘Seventy years after the Japanese capitulation we are more than ever conscious that this period of our history demands continuing attention and an active remembrance,’ Rutte said. 

‘Let us ensure that the lack of understanding and the grief of the victims is slowly removed.’ 

Independence

Immediately after the capitulation in what was then Dutch India, the local population called for independence which the Dutch were not prepared to grant. The result was a war between Dutch soldiers and the Indonesians which lasted from 1945 to 1950.

The organisers of Saturday’s ceremony told the NRC: ‘The period following the end of World War II was a chaotic and violent time, during which many people were unable to leave the Japanese prison camps and thousands more were interned.’ 

On Friday Rutte told broadcaster Nos that ‘it has taken a long time for the Dutch and Indonesians to recognise that what happened during that period was horrific’.

Justice Ministry: No Idul Fitri Sentence Cuts for Graft Convicts – Yet

Jakarta Globe, Erwin Sihombing, Jul 21, 2015

Corruption convict Muhammad Nazaruddin, center, was one of dozens of people
 reported to have received a sentence reduction for Idul Fitri. The Justice
Ministry has denied this. (Antara Photo/Novrin Arbi)

Jakarta. Indonesia’s Justice Ministry has insisted that no sentence reductions were awarded to corruption convicts for the Idul Fitri holiday last week, following local media reports of cuts of up to two months for some notorious convicts.

“Not a single letter [approving a sentence cut] has been issued, in keeping with Government Regulation 99 of 2012,” M. Akbar Hadiprabowo, a spokesman for the ministry, told reporters in Jakarta on Tuesday.

Any sentence cuts, known locally as remissions, reportedly handed out to graft convicts “are merely recommendations from local offices of the Justice Ministry and are still being processed,” he added.

The 2012 government regulation was introduced by the administration of then-minister of justice Amir Syamsuddin to make it more difficult for corruption convicts to qualify for a sentence cut, as part of the Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono administration’s wider efforts to get tough on graft.

Under the regulation, corruption convicts must pay all fines and damages imposed by a court before they can qualify. They must also cooperate with law enforcement authorities investigating others implicated in the same case, and must have approval from the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) on whether they deserve a sentence cut.

The current justice minister, Yasonna Laoly from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), drew widespread condemnation earlier this year for calling for the regulation to be rescinded because it was too harsh on graft convicts.

His office, though, appears to still be abiding by the regulation in not approving sentence cuts this Idul Fitri. (The ministry traditionally hands out sentence cuts ranging from 15 days to two months during major public holidays.)

Local media reported last week that dozens of corruption convicts, including high-profile prisoners such as former Democratic Party treasurer Muhammad Nazaruddin and rogue tax official Gayus Tambunan, had received sentence cuts of up to two months.

Nazaruddin is serving a seven-year sentence for bid-rigging in a contract for the construction of an athletes’ village in Palembang, South Sumatra, for the 2011 Southeast Asian Games; Gayus has been hit by a string of convictions for bribery, passport forgery and other offenses, putting his sentence at 30 years.

Obama becomes first president to visit US prison

Yahoo – AFP, 16 July 2015

US President Barack Obama speaks as he tours the El Reno Federal  Correctional

Institution in El Reno, Oklahoma, July 16, 2015 (AFP Photo/Saul Loeb)

El Reno (United States) (AFP) - Barack Obama became the first sitting US president to visit a federal prison on Thursday, amid a push to reform America's overcrowded and expensive correctional system.

Obama toured the "B" block of El Reno Federal Correctional Institution in Oklahoma, where he met six inmates convicted of drug offenses.

Nearly a quarter of the world's prison population is concentrated in American jails. However, the United States accounts for less than five percent of the world's population.

A prison cell is seen through the door window

 at the El Reno Federal Correctional 

Institution in El Reno, Oklahoma, July 16,

 2015 (AFP Photo/Saul Loeb)

Obama wants to cut the number of people incarcerated, curb use of solitary confinement and end mandatory minimum sentences.

"We have to consider whether this is the smartest way for us to both control crime and rehabilitate individuals," he said during his visit.

"We have to reconsider whether 20 year, 30 year, life sentences for nonviolent crimes is the best way for us to solve these problems."

After viewing a small cell that can hold up to three inmates, Obama said: "This is an outstanding institution within the system, and yet they've got enormous overcrowding issues."

The United States jails as many people as the top 35 European nations combined.

Black and Latino Americans represent 60 percent of the prison population while around 30 percent of prisoners are white.

'The grace of God'

Around 71,000 minors are also incarcerated in the United States.

"I think we have a tendency sometimes to almost take for granted, or think it's normal, that so many young people end up in our criminal justice system," Obama said. "It's not normal. It's not what happens in other countries."

"What is normal is teenagers doing stupid things," Obama said.

Recounting his discussion with inmates, he added: "When they describe their youth, these are young people who made mistakes that aren't that different from the mistakes I made, and the mistakes that a lot of you guys made."

US President Barack Obama walks through the prison yard during a tour of the

 El Reno Federal Correctional Institution in El Reno, Oklahoma, July 16, 2015

(AFP Photo/Saul Loeb)

"The difference is that they did not have the kind of support structures, the second chances, the resources that would allow them to survive those mistakes."

"There but for the grace of God," he said.

Obama has said he will try to pass "meaningful criminal justice reform" this year.

"This is a cause that's bringing people in both houses of Congress together. It's created some unlikely bedfellows," Obama said earlier this week.

He has tried to show Republicans angry at federal spending that prison costs are also hurting the budget.

At $80 billion, the budget for prisons represents a third of the Department of Justice's annual spending.

But all that money doesn't mean prisons are in good condition.

A report by the Columbia Journalism Review on Illinois state prisons revealed vermin, flooded basements, a general lack of sanitation and crowding, with "some serving time for nothing more than driving on a revoked license."

Woman who spent 23 years on US death
row cleared (Photo: dpa)

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