24 August 2010

Commuting the Sentences of Bali Bombers...

There has been a suggestion by Indonesian prison authorities that two of the Bali Bombers should have their life sentences commuted to 20 years in prison on the basis of their good behaviour since being incarcerated. The pair, Abdul Ghoni and Sawad are unrepentant about their actions and suggest that they believe the three Bali Bombers that have been executed will be forgiven by God, if indeed their actions were wrong. There is no remorse for the killing of 202 people.

These men have not shown that they deserve to have their sentences commuted. The idea that these fellows should ever breathe air as free men again is likely to be objectionable to any one who lost family or friends in the 2002 bombings of the Sari Club and Paddy's.

However, if the Indonesian authorities see fit to commute these sentences from life to 20 years then it only seems reasonable that the authorities also see fit to commute the death sentences of Scott Rush, Myuran Sukumaran, and Andrew Chan to at the very least life in prison. Considering, the drugs these individuals were carrying were destined for Australia and were not likely to be killing any Indonesians then it makes sense that their death penalties be commuted to 20 years or so. The others should all have their respective sentences commuted or amended in similar ways.

If Ghoni or Sawad have their sentences commuted, then there is no justifiable reason that the Indonesian authorities and government could make to keep Schapelle Corby in jail for her full sentence.

It is about time that the legal reform movement also took stock of their successes to date, and mapped out a more encouraging road forward. This road must include work on sentencing and remission reform. This is not a case of "if the system ain't broke", but rather a case of the system being irreparably damaged and needing a complete reconfiguration. A simple botox job to remove the wrinkles is no longer a good enough response.

2 comments:

ralph said...

Back to the matter of rape:


Man jailed for van rape
Adrian Lowe
August 25, 2010 - 12:01PM

An Indian national who raped a woman because of his "pent-up anger" towards his mother and wife has been jailed for 13 years.

Harjot Hundal Singh, 27, abducted his victim while she was walking home from Springvale railway station, in Melbourne's south-east, on June 18 last year just after 11pm.

Singh grabbed the woman, an international university student, from behind and dragged her into the back of a work van before tying her arms together and raping her, the Victorian County Court heard.

Judge Marilyn Harbison said Singh told his victim to "stop shouting otherwise I will kill you with a knife".

I see what you mean...

Again thanks

Rob Baiton said...

@ Ralph...

You could have posted this in the relevant thread...Never mind!

See what I mean? What, about rape being a crime of violence?

My memory of the case was that the actual victim was random. At least in the sense that she happened to be walking past at the time. It had nothing to do with what clothes she was wearing.

As I understand it, he intended to rape someone because he felt that he did not have the power at home, so he was going to show some woman who was boss.

Glad I did not scare you off.