50 Percent Of Prisons Filled With Drug Convicts, Minister Of Law And Human Rights Yasonna Immediately Revise The Narcotics Law

JAKARTA - Minister of Law and Human Rights (Menkum HAM) Yasonna Laoly, promised to immediately revise the Narcotics Law with the DPR.

The reason, he said, was that more than half of the inmates in prisons were drug convicts.

"We have to change the narcotics law plan, there are several articles. Actually the government has been wanting to do that and there are slight differences among government institutions," Yasonna said in a working meeting with the Legislative Council of the DPR and DPD, Wednesday, September 15.

"Because more than 50 percent of the contents of our prisons are drug (convicts), that's something very strange," he continued.

Yasonna claimed to have held talks with Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Mahfud MD regarding the revision of the Narcotics Law. In fact, Yasonna has conveyed this to President Joko Widodo (Jokowi).

"So if we still can't solve it, I mean we take it to the highest level so we can revise this immediately. We absolutely need to solve this, otherwise we won't be able to solve the problems of prisons, something strange," he explained.

Yasonna emphasized that the Ministry of Law and Human Rights has not given up and the government is still proposing the revision of the drug law. "We have not given up on submitting it to the DPR," said the PDIP politician.