22 October 2008

Why Wait for Friday?

I promised to provide an update on the planned executions of the Bali Bombers (photo from Kompas) on Friday unless something interesting came up, and it did.

It seems that the legal team of the three are going to take this thing to the ICJ. I am not entirely convinced that they can as the ICJ is generally a State against State deal.


Achmad Michdan of the legal team has said they are going to send a letter to the "International Court". I am guessing that this is the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

My guess is based on a Kompas Newspaper report (
in Indonesian). However, a letter would seem to be wasted on the ICJ. It would make more sense to send a letter to a UN organ that dealt with human rights, such as the Human Rights Council.

It seems that the legal teams complaint is that the Constitutional Court of Indonesia does not take into account that the prescribed method of execution in Islam is beheading.
I need to find out some more information on this.

I will check it out later in the morning and add a postscript if, and when, I find out something.


Thanks to Calupict for pointing me in this direction.

9 comments:

Elyani said...

Waiting for the trio to get executed is like waiting for the rains to fall in my area of Jakarta. I am so hopeful when I see the dark clouds on the sky..but darn..still no rains! I hope their appeal to the IJC will be denied as well. It's odd they seem to be afraid of dying.

Rob Baiton said...

Elyani...

I have written before that for three fellas who believe their executions will make them martyrs they do seem to have some reservations about becoming martyrs.

Unknown said...

"the prescribed method of execution in Islam is beheading"

So, is it ok to kill innocent people but not ok to give death penalty to them? Sigh...

NIF said...

Well, your welcome Rob.

Yeah, it will make more sense if they take the case to the HRC instead of ICJ. However, jurisdiction also still a problem for their claim at the HRC as Indonesia did not ratify the 1st optional protocol of the ICCPR.

Anonymous said...

hmmm its quite surprising, the people who are exhibiting the greatest bloodlust, happen to be women!

Rob Baiton said...

Ecky...

I think their point is not that they cannot be executed but that the method of their execution should be beheading.

It seems that the claim is not only is it the prescribed method it is also allegedly the most painless of available methods.

Calupict...

Nice point on the protocol. I was not really focusing on the technicalities of advancing a claim at the HRC, which would be problematic for the reason you point out, but rather on whether the ICJ could be the forum for such a claim.

Invisible...

I am not that surprised to be perfectly honest.

Brett said...

I am pretty sure that the ICJ has no jurisdiction unless the Indo Govt agrees. This is extremely unlikely.

Rob Baiton said...

Brett...

After digging a little deeper. It seems that the lawyer involved is not speaking on behalf of the legal team. Nevertheless, the legal team seems to support the move.

What is happening is that they are sending a letter apparently to the ICJ (although I am thinking that it might be somewhere else) to get clarification that the interpretation of the Constitutional Court is a valid one with respect to torture.

escort valencia said...

This will not work as a matter of fact, that's what I consider.