Song of the Executed

Publishing the 'confession' of recently executed drug dealer Freddy Budiman is not a crime. Written down by Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) coordinator Haris Azhar, the account that subsequently spread via social media is a criticism of our law enforcement authorities. Instead of gratitude, however, the response from the authorities was one of repression. Haris was reported to the police for defamation and breaking the Electronic Information and Transactions Law.

The publication of Freddy's tell-all 'confession' should be seen as the advocacy of an activist who opposes the death penalty. The word 'confession' is in quotation marks because by the time Haris' words started circulating, Freddy had been executed along with three other convicted drug dealers. In the midst of arguments for and against capital punishment in the last two years, the administration of Joko Widodo has executed 17 convicted criminals so far in three batches. Haris wrote about the weakness of the Indonesian judicial system, which he has made as the basis for his opposition to the death penalty. He reported Freddy's claim, whom he met two years ago at Nusakambangan penitentiary in Central Java, of the involvement of a number of police, military, Customs and Excise and National Narcotics Agency (BNN) personnel in the illegal drug trade. The point we wish to make is that there is always the possibility of errors in a legal process that sentences convicted criminals to death.

August 9, 2016