Executions a luxury Indonesia cannot afford

By Ainur Rohmah

JAKARTA

Indonesia announced a moratorium on executions Thursday to focus on combating a domestic economic slowdown.

Coordinating Minister for Politics, Law, and Security Luhut Binsar Panjaitan did not mention how long the reprieve for death row prisoners would last, but underlined that it will continue "while the Indonesian economy has not recovered".

"We cannot think about the death penalty while our economy is still like this," Luhut was quoted by Kompas.com as saying.

He said that economic growth is a major focus of what the current government wants to achieve.

According to the Central Statistics Agency, economic growth in the third quarter was just 4.7 percent.

Last year, President Joko Widodo set an ambitious growth target of seven percent every year until 2017, but this year Indonesia has not rallied despite economic stimulus and structural reform aimed at drawing in foreign investment, building infrastructure and creating new job opportunities.

This year, Indonesia has executed 14 people convicted of drug offenses -- 12 of them foreign nationals, including Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran.

Chan and Sukumaran's lawyer, Todung Mulya Lubis, was quoted by ABC News earlier this year as linking executions of foreign nationals to falling foreign investment in the country.

"Even the existing investment cannot be maintained. They [foreign businesses] may go any time," he was quoted as saying. "And we cannot afford to have another execution, as simple as that."

Indonesia resumed its use of the death penalty in 2013 after a five-year moratorium, leading to criticism from the international community and local human rights activists, who claim the legal process is corrupt and its outcomes often not based on the principle of justice.

According to the Attorney General's office, at least 50 prisoners are currently awaiting execution, including Filipina Mary Jane Veloso and French national Serge Atlaoui.

In April, the pair avoided the firing squad after the prosecutor postponed their execution pending ongoing legal proceedings.