Of bombers, terror and Indonesian law
The mastermind behind the Australian Embassy bombing in Jakarta which killed 11 ppl has been sentenced to death.
From Aussies will pay, says bomber | Top stories | Breaking News 24/7 – NEWS.com.au (14-09-2005):
Rois joins Bali bombers Mukhlas, Imam Samudra and Amrozi bin Nurhasyim on Indonesia’s death row and, like them, he said he welcomed a martyr’s death.“I thank God because God has shown me this is an evil court,” Rois said, refusing to say if he would appeal.
“I reject the verdict, because it is derived from evil law, not from the law of God. I thank God, because if we are sentenced to die with an evil law, we are sure we will have a holy death.”
An interesting side note is this:
Rois explained his role in a series of police interviews, and said Australian dollars from bin Laden directly funded the operation. Rois later tried to retract the signed police interviews, but the judges refused to accept his retraction. Although not a single witness testified regarding Rois’s guilt, the judges said they were sure of his role.
Imagine the public outcry if this same indifference to a lack of evidence was applied on the number of drug-related cases in Bali. At last count, 13 Australians are currently being prosecuted or incarcerated there for drug-related offenses.
However, the government’s stance on all occasions from the Bali and Jakarta bombings to the drug arrests in Bali, should be commended. The message has always been consistently this:
We respect Indonesian law because we’d expect the same from them with regards to Australian law; when you are in a foreign country, you abide by their laws.
The same cannot be said about public sentiment which had often been overtly racist.
Meanwhile, the recent terror threat against Melbourne has been revealed to be empty rhetoric not backed by any solid evidence or intelligence pointing to a possible attack.
Terror tape unravelled as rhetoric | Top stories | Breaking News 24/7 – NEWS.com.au (14-09-2005)
2 Responses to “Of bombers, terror and Indonesian law”
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i’m not too sure about this, but i remember reading a Schapelle Corby article that explained why there’s a perception from aussies that indonesian courts are less receptive to evidence.
it explains how this probably stems from the fact that the indonesian courts adopt an Inquisitorial Judicial System (part of the dutch colonial hangover) where by the onus is on the defendant to prove his/her innocence and the judge is sorta draw his/her own conclusion or even question the defendants as compared to the Common law system where there’s a ‘presumption of innocence until proven guilty’ upon the defendant.
Yup exactly – that was the main cause of the misperception that “innocent until guilty” would apply in that system. It clearly doesn’t and when ppl didn’t understand that, they started hurling abuse at the Indonesian justice system calling it corrupt and inept.