Deputy Law and Human Rights Minister Denny Indrayana says the government has decided against a moratorium on the granting of remission for graft convicts, saying it would opt to tighten the procedures instead.
Denny said that banning remission, albeit only temporarily, was apparently against the law, citing opinion from a number of legal experts.
“This [tightening the remission granting procedures, instead of the moratorium] is not my personal policy, but that of the Law and Human Rights Ministry. We’ve decided on this,” Denny said during a discussion on the issue in Jakarta on Saturday.
Denny, who was just recently appointed as the deputy minister, had said previously that the government would apply a moratorium on the granting of remission for graft convicts while revising related regulations.
He said, however, that the plan had sparked more protest than support.
University of Indonesia criminologist Ganjar L. Bondan said he agreed with the government’s decision to tighten procedures for remission granting, saying graft convicts had frequently obtained remission very easily.
“There is even an implication that remission granting and conditional releases have now been commercialized,” Ganjar told the same discussion.
He also expressed agreement that a moratorium was not the right move, saying such mechanism could only apply on budgetary affairs.
