...she will have to serve just eight years more.Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Indonesian government said the clemency granted to Australian drug smuggler Schapelle Corby was merely based on humanitarian consideration.
Teuku Faizasyah, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono`s special staff for international relations, said here on Wednesday that the president had made the decision based on several considerations, including the humanitarian one.
The decision has nothing to do with the Indonesian government`s efforts to get clemency for Indonesian national facing legal cases in Australia
The reduction in Corby`s sentence is not a form of compensation nor to reciprocate with the release of Indonesian prisoners in Australia, according to him.
The Australian government had indeed asked President Yudhoyono to reduce Corby`s sentence, but it was just normative when two leaders met and they talked about legal cases involving the respective countries` citizens, he said.
He cited as an example that President Yudhoyono did write letters asking for leniency or clemency for Indonesians workers facing legal cases in Middle Eastern countries.
He called it as a normal practice in international relations.
Faizasyah denied that the five year reduction in Corby`s sentence was to reciprocate with the release of three Indonesians who had been jailed in Australia.
"No, I think it must not be linked. they are separate issues - it`s a Corby issue, and the other issue concerns our people in other countries," he said.
President Yudhoyono reduced Corby`s sentence by five years in the letter of clemency that he signed on May 15, 2012.
Corby was arrested at Bali`s international airport in October 2004 while attempting to smuggle in more than four kilograms of marijuana in her hand luggage.
She was sentenced to 20 years. She has been in jail for the last seven years, and with the clemency, she will have to serve just eight years more.
(F001)
Editor: Ella Syafputri
Copyright © ANTARA 2012
