Legal challenge to Indonesian executions

LAWYERS AND PRIESTS from a Churchbased group have decided to take the case of the executions of three Indonesian Catholics to the International Criminal Court, claiming the executions were illegal and unconstitutional.
"The executions of Fabianus Tibo. Marinus Riwu and Dominggus da Silva on September 22 in Palu were a legal and human tragedy. They were illegal and unconstitutional because the three citizens did not perpetrate the crime during Poso riots in May 2000," said a statement from Advocacy Service for Justice and Peace in Indonesia, known by its Indonesian acronym as Padma Indonesia. The three men were convicted of killing 224 people, burning about 5,000 houses and office buildings and torturing people.
The statement was signed by Divine Word Fr Nobert Bethan, director of Padma Indonesia; Reforms Roy Rening, coordinator of the legal team; Ignatius Ignas Iryanto, coordinator of the paralegal team; and Fr Jimmy Tumbelaka, spiritual counsel. The four, accompanied by Robert Tibo, son of Fabianus Tibo, presented the statement at a press conference in Jakarta.
Padma Indonesia, which had provided legal and spiritual assistance for the three executed men. said the Indonesian government perpetrated crimes against humanity by carrying out the executions of the three poor villagers.
"The judgment against them is wrong because it was not free and honest," its statement said. It noted that no legal action resulted from the naming of 16 other people believed to be the masterminds of the 2000 Paso riots.
Beyond the fact that the men did not commit the crimes, the executions were illegal and unconstitutional because they occurred when the three men were exercising their constitutional right to a second appeal for clemency, the statement added.
It also said the executions were carried out in an inhuman and uncivilised way and violated the 1964 presidential decree on the procedure for carrying out the death penalty.
The statement said that Mr Rening and Fr Tumbelaka met Palu Chief District Attorney Muhammad Basri Akib "but he refused to officially give or even show us the warrant for the executions". Mr Akib also did not allow Mr Rening to see the three Catholics.
The statement said that Mr Rening and Fr Tumbelaka were told by the Palu District Attorney's Office that the district attorney refused all the last requests of the three men. "Refusing all their last wishes is against the 1964 presidential decree on the procedure of death penalty execution," the statement said.
Other violations, according to the statement, included the failure to hand over the bodies of the three men to their fami lies after execution. The statement said that as of the day of the press conference the district attorney still had not provided the three men's families and lawyers with the official reports of the executions. "We are preparing legal efforts via competent international institutions such as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and International Criminal Court," Father Bethan said.
Meanwhile, Indonesian police have arrested 14 Christians accused of bludgeoning two Muslim men to death amid anger at the execution of three men.
The fish salesmen were killed at an illegal roadblock on the island's main highway and their bodies were buried in a shallow grave nearby, said Central Sulawesi Police Chief Brig. Gen. Badrudin Haiti.
The roadblock was one of several set up by Christian youth on the island following the executions. Police said the Muslims were killed when they Tailed to slow down.