EXECUTION OF JUSTICE

Three Australians May Face the Death Penalty in Indonesia As Authorities
Try to Curb the Drug Trade, Report Sian Powell and Olivia Rondonuwu

INDONESIA'S bitter war on drugs has roared unchecked across a nation where
civil liberties, due process and merciful sentencing are luxuries enjoyed
only by the elite.

A few brave voices have spoken out against capital punishment for drug
crimes and a few others have lamented the sledgehammer approach of the
police. But, for the most part, Indonesians are happy to see drug dealers
and users sentenced to death.

Of the 54 men and women crossing off the days on Indonesia's death row, 31
have been convicted of smuggling or possessing drugs. Murder comes a poor
second, with 19 people sentenced to death, and terrorism third, with four.
Three drug smugglers -- two Thais and an Indian -- have been shot by firing
squads so far this year, the first executions since 2001. As many as seven
other drug criminals have had their last appeals for mercy rejected and
await imminent execution.

The drug-war rhetoric of religious leaders and government figures has
galvanised a nation fearful of the damage heroin, amphetamines, opiates and
even marijuana can wreak on impressionable youngsters. Now three
Australians have been caught up in the fevered rush to punish drug
criminals, and punish them severely.

Schapelle Leigh Corby, 27, a beauty-school student from Queensland's Gold
Coast, was arrested at Bali's Ngurah Rai airport last month and accused of
trying to smuggle 4.1kg of marijuana into Indonesia. Indonesian police have
recommended prosecutors charge her under laws that carry the death penalty.

Chris Currell, 37, from Brisbane, has been detained in Bali for allegedly
trying to send ephedrine pills and powder to Australia. The crime of
possessing or selling psychotropic drugs carries a maximum penalty of 15
years in prison.

Chris Wardill, 27, from Darwin, was detained in the western Indonesian
island of Batam last Sunday for possessing what are thought to be four
ecstasy pills.

Former president Megawati Sukarnoputri first declared war on drugs in 2002,
insisting on capital punishment for drug dealers. "For those who distribute
drugs, life sentences and other prison sentences are no longer sufficient,"
she said. "No sentence is sufficient other than the death sentence."

Indonesia's new leader Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has also publicly supported
the death penalty. His deputy, Jusuf Kalla, reportedly even asked for the
expedition of executions when he was a minister under Megawati. None of the
candidates in the recent presidential elections opposed capital punishment.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have become increasingly
worried by Indonesia's new relish for judicial executions. In an as yet
unpublished briefing on Indonesia's death penalty, Amnesty notes there have
even been demands to impose the death penalty for illegal logging and
corruption.

Amnesty says it is concerned by Indonesia's "increasing willingness" to
execute criminals, particularly drug traffickers, and adds it is alarmed by
official statements that more criminals will be executed soon.

Indonesian Attorney-General Abdul Rahman Saleh's spokesman R.J. Soehandojo
confirms the Government has become increasingly tough on drug criminals,
especially traffickers.

"Heavier punishments have already been legislated because drug activities
are very dangerous for the nation and the people," he says. Drugs, he adds,
have infiltrated all layers of Indonesian society, from soldiers and the
police to elementary school children. "If drug dealers are not heavily
punished, with the heaviest sentences, there is grave danger. This country
will be destroyed because of drugs."

This rhetoric is echoed by the police and prosecutors connected to Corby's
case. Last week, the prosecution sent her case file back to the police,
requesting additional information, but it remains likely her trial date
will be set before the end of December.

Bali's chief prosecutor for general crimes, Muhammad Yusni, says five or
six people have been charged under laws that carry the death sentence in
Bali and in recent months a Sierra Leone man, Emmanuel O. Lhejirika, was
sentenced to death in Bali for possessing 461.7g of heroin. Heavy sentences
are necessary deterrents, Yusni says. "It's a lesson, so others won't
follow in their paths."

A spokeswoman for Bali's Attorney-General Nunuk Sugiyarti agrees that it's
up to the authorities to protect the tourist island. "We don't want Bali to
be ruined," she says. "Their crimes are of an international nature; they
want to make Bali an international market for narcotics. We're not playing
here, this is serious."

Bali's drug squad chief Bambang Sugiarto seems confident Corby will be
convicted: she has admitted the body-board bag was hers, he says. The
pillow-sized sack of marijuana was found in the unlocked bag at Bali's
airport, and Corby has repeatedly and strenuously denied she knows anything
about the marijuana.

Yet Uli Parulian Sihombing, director of Jakarta's Legal Aid Foundation,
says that might not be sufficient. "She has to have strong witnesses, other
than herself, who will say the drugs weren't in her bag before she arrived
in Bali," he says. "She needs witnesses who will say she didn't know the
drugs were there, such as Australian Customs officials."

Corby has been accused of smuggling marijuana, which in Australia is
classified as a less dangerous drug than heroin or cocaine. But in
Indonesia, marijuana is in the same category as heroin.

Most of the drug criminals on Indonesia's death row were caught with
heroin, although Indonesian Kiagus Zainal Abidin was sentenced to death by
the South Sumatra High Court for trafficking 58.7kg of marijuana. Brazilian
Marco Archer Cardoso Moreira was also sentenced to death, in July, for
trying to bring into Indonesia 13.4kg of cocaine hidden in his hang-glider
frame.

Indonesian courts, particularly Tangerang District Court, which has
jurisdiction over Jakarta's Sukarno Hatta airport, have come down
increasingly hard on drug dealers. Former justice minister Muladi
reportedly called Tangerang court a "judicial killing machine", ready to
bring down the hammer on hard-drug mules.

Twenty-two of the drug convicts on Indonesia's death row are foreigners,
mostly from Africa. Nine are Indonesian. Most seem to be extremely poor,
unable to buy their way out of trouble.

Bunyong Khaosa, for instance, is a 45-year-old single mother from Thailand
who was arrested trying to smuggle 450g of heroin into Indonesia in April
2002. She was caught at Jakarta airport: officials were suspicious because
her clothes looked far too shabby for the tourist she purported to be. She
was sentenced to death by Tangerang District Court in October 2002.

Money talks for drug criminals. Indonesia is notoriously corrupt, routinely
languishing near the bottom of global corruption indexes, and the rot has
spread through certain sections of the police and judiciary. One source
says some of the wealthier and more savvy foreigners caught with drugs can
bribe police officers and avoid court altogether, while others, less lucky,
are kept in prison paying bribes until their funds are exhausted, at which
point they are promptly deported.

Certainly, it is widely known that some within the Indonesian military and
police have a hand in drug-smuggling and drug distribution across the
sprawling archipelago, and the forces occasionally have turf battles over
particular areas. Yet it is difficult to find a case of a soldier or police
officer facing justice for drug crimes.

Without a centralised statistics pool, it's difficult to even find out how
many people have been accused or convicted of drug crimes in recent years
but, according to one government agency, last year nearly 10,000
Indonesians were detained for drug crimes, compared with just more than
2500 in 1999. Yet despite the accelerating trend, there is scepticism that
heavy penalties, even capital punishment, are enough to deter drug crimes.

Bhatara Ibnu Reza, a legal researcher with the human rights group
Imparsial, says he is unaware of proof that imposing the death penalty will
scare off everyone. "The problem remains, doesn't it?" he asks. "It's clear
the problem lies with the inability of police and the law to control it.