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03-08-2025
JAKARTA/ MEDAN: Indonesia has begun releasing hundreds of inmates from prison, including people convicted of political offences, after parliament approved the first stage of President Prabowo Subianto’s wide-ranging clemency plan, reportedly aimed at building national solidarity.
A first group of 1,178 inmates were to be released on Friday after House of Representatives Deputy Speaker Sufmi Dasco Ahmad and Law Minister Supratman Andi Agtas announced late on Thursday that Subianto had signed a Presidential Decree granting amnesties.
Barely two months after he took office in October, Subianto, the former son-in-law of Indonesian dictator Soeharto, surprised the nation by saying he planned to grant clemency to some 44,000 inmates nationwide, most of them imprisoned for political reasons, as a way to help unify the country.
Law Minister Agtas said political prisoners and inmates with mental and chronic health illnesses, older people, juveniles and those convicted of blasphemy or insulting the country’s leader will be prioritized in the pardons.
Among those released on Friday were prominent rivals of former President Joko Widodo who were jailed during his term, including Hasto Kristiyanto, the secretary-general of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, the country’s only formal opposition party.
A former ally of ex-President Widodo who later became a harsh critic, Kristiyanto was sentenced last week to three and a half years in prison for bribery in a 2019 legislative seat appointment scheme.
Released on Friday evening from his cell at the anti-Corruption Commission’s detention centre in South Jakarta, where he had been held since February, Kristiyanto told a cheering crowd, “We must learn from this incident.”
Agtas said parliament also approved an end to criminal proceedings against former Trade Minister Tom Lembong, also a onetime Widodo ally who broke with him during the 2024 presidential election to support political rival Anies Baswedan.
Lembong was sentenced to more than four years in prison in July for reportedly abusing his authority as minister by improperly granting sugar import permits.
“Both (Kristiyanto and Lembong) have demonstrated service to the nation, and our priority now is to strengthen the unity of the nation,” Agtas said.
Six independence activists from Indonesia’s restive West Papua region, serving prison sentences for treason, were also released.
Agtas said authorities plan to submit a second list of 1,668 inmates for release to parliament in the near future.
Meanwhile, after graduating from university with a law degree two years ago, Andreas Hutapea assumed he would not have much difficulty finding a stable career.
In reality, Hutapea found himself facing one rejection after another.
Hutapea first failed to make it through Indonesia’s notoriously difficult civil service exams, which lead to a job for only about 3 percent of applicants, and was similarly unsuccessful in his bid to become a trainee prosecutor.
Before law school, Hutapea had dreamed of joining the army, but he could not meet the height requirement.
Eventually, with his money running out, Hutapea left the student accommodation he was renting to move back in with his parents, who run a simple shop selling oil, eggs, rice and other groceries.
Hutapea has been working at his parents’ shop, in a town on the outskirts of Medan, the capital of North Sumatra, ever since. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
