REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Filipino convict Mary Jane's case should be expedited to improve the performance of law enforcement agencies in Indonesia, Coordinator of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) Haris Azhar said.
"Law enforcement officials should be smarter. When you see Mary Jane's profile, you know she is not a drug dealer," Azhar stated here on Tuesday (5/5).
He added that the initial processes of the Filipina's case were not conducted properly. There was no translator accompanying her. This indicates that the legal processes of Mary Jane's case were carried out carelessly.
In addition, the investigators also never tried to locate the people mentioned in her legal proceedings. In fact, she had even identified a person who had sent her and who had been targeted.
"If they did not find sufficient evidence through investigations, they should have gone to the Philippines to probe the case properly," he pointed out.
With regard to the verdict on her case, Azhar assessed that the judges had been hasty in handing her a death sentence.
Mary Jane's execution was postponed following a new development in her case in the Philippines that now requires her testimony.
A Filipino court found several people who had ordered or used Mary Jane.
Earlier, Vice Chairman of Setara Institute Bonar Tigor Naipospos had remarked that the commutation of Mary Jane's sentence depended on diplomacy between Indonesia and the Philippines, although there was new evidence in court in her country.
"The verdict of the court in the Philippines cannot be used as new evidence for Mary Jane to propose a judicial review to the Supreme Court," Naipospos noted here on Tuesday.
Although Indonesia and the Philippines are members of the ASEAN and signed an extradition treaty, there is no rule of law or procedure among them for such cases.
Moreover, no member state of the ASEAN can interfere in internal matters of another member country.
"The rule of domestic law must be upheld," he affirmed.
According to the Attorney General, the execution of Mary Jane has only been postponed, not canceled.
The vice president also reiterated that this postponement was based on Indonesia's respect for the law in the Philippines.
On Tuesday, the day the execution was scheduled to take place, Mary Jane's recruiters Maria Kristina Sergio and Julius Lacanilo were reported to have surrendered to law enforcement authorities in the Philippines. This made the Indonesian government postpone her execution as she would be needed to testify in court.
Furthermore, Mary Jane is suspected to be a mere victim of human trafficking in the Philippines.
Minister of Justice of the Philippines Leila de Lima noted that the case would be investigated from May 8 to 14.
Mary Jane admitted that she met Sergio in Petaling Jaya in Malaysia and was promised a job in the country.
However, Sergio later ordered her to smuggle heroin to Indonesia through the Adisutjipto Airport in Yogyakarta, Central Java.
Kalla also denied that the decision to postpone Mary Jane's execution was a sudden one.
"It takes days to complete processes, not hours. Perhaps he (the recruiter) was sorry to see Mary Jane being executed and moved to confess his crime," he pointed out.
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