Responding To Malaysia Not Requireing The Death Penalty, Indonesian Embassy: We Help Prisons Prepare Data Needs

The Indonesian Ambassador to Malaysia Hermono (center) spoke at the FGD on the Elimination of Malaysian Mandatory Death Penalty which was followed online, Jakarta, Thursday (21/9/2023). (ANTARA/Katriana

The Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia (KBRI) in Kuala Lumpur has prepared a number of steps and efforts to respond to the abolition of mandatory or mandatory death penalty in Malaysia.

"The first step in this process is to help the prison for the needs of the data," said the Indonesian Ambassador to Malaysia Hermono in the FGD on the Elimination of Malaysian Mandatey Death Penalty which was followed online in Jakarta, Thursday, September 21, was confiscated by Antara.

The Malaysian government, said Hermono, has enacted the death penalty and life sentence on September 12, 2023.

The amendment did not erase the death penalty, but only removed its mandatory nature.

The amendment made the convict able to apply for a review (PK) to obtain leniency. The PK needs to be submitted to the prison, to then be registered with the Supreme Council in Malaysia.

In the process of submitting a PK, imprisonment often requires the data needed to be able to register a PK.

Therefore, the Indonesian Embassy will coordinate with prisons in Malaysia so that it helps them complete the data needed by Indonesian citizens who are sentenced to death and life imprisonment in Malaysia.

Hermono revealed, throughout June-July 2023, the Indonesian Embassy had identified and visited 35 prisons throughout Malaysia so that data was obtained that 78 Indonesian citizens would apply for PK.

The next step taken by the Indonesian Embassy is to prepare a lawyer to accompany the convict Indonesian citizens who apply for a PK.

"If the accused party or defendant in this death penalty case does not have a lawyer, then the state will provide it," said Hermono.

However, according to Hermono, not all Indonesian citizens are sentenced to death or life imprisonment willing to be accompanied by lawyers provided by the government.

"So, it is our job in representatives to ask whether they want to be accompanied by an Indonesian lawyer or not," he said.

Hermono also emphasized the need for the government to provide lawyers if the convicts of Indonesian citizens need him.

"We need to sit down together to see how much the budget needs for this lawyer actually need," he said, so that no Indonesian convict will feel neglected because it is not provided by a lawyer.

"Don't let the government be taken lightly, not concerned on the grounds that they don't have a budget. So, we have to make sure," said Hermono.

He explained, of the 78 convicts who allowed the PK, 69 of them were sentenced to death and 9 others were sentenced to life imprisonment.

Of the 78 convicts who were allowed to apply for PK, 42 people had received PK, while the other 36 were still in the process of registering PK.