JAKARTA: Indonesia is set to release about 30,000 prisoners early as the Southeast Asian nation seeks to avoid a possible surge in coronavirus infections in its overcrowded prisons.
A document issued by the law and human rights ministry reviewed by Reuters stipulated that adult prisoners would be eligible for parole if they had served two-thirds of their sentences, while children would be eligible if they served half of their jail term.
Ministry spokesman Bambang Wiyono said on Tuesday the parole would encompass around 30,000 prisoners.
Indonesia is the world’s fourth most populous nation and President Joko Widodo on Tuesday declared a national public health emergency in a bid to contain the coronavirus outbreak. So far, the government has reported 1,414 infections and 122 deaths from the virus, but some officials and experts believe a lack of testing has masked the scale of the outbreak.
Official data shows there are 270,386 prisoners across Indonesia, more than twice the official capacity of its jails, as a war on drugs has led to a surge in the number of people locked up. Many centers also lack proper sanitation, which makes inmates particularly vulnerable to the spread of diseases.
Erasmus Napitupulu, executive director of the Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (ICJR), welcomed the parole, but urged the government to widen it to include more prisoners.
Other countries including Iran and the United States have also released prisoners early in a bid to stem the accelerating spread of coronavirus in jails.
Widodo has said he would impose stricter rules on mobility and social distancing as a study presented to the government warned that more than 140,000 people could die from the coronavirus by May unless it takes tougher action.
Indonesia to release 30,000 prisoners early amid coronavirus concerns
https://arab.news/4kvrs
Indonesia to release 30,000 prisoners early amid coronavirus concerns
- Adult prisoners would be eligible for parole if they had served two-thirds of their sentences
- Children would be eligible if they served half of their jail term
Russia bombards Kyiv as Ukraine issues countrywide alert
- Ukraine’s air force warned “all of Ukraine is under a missile threat” after confirming Russian bombers were airborne
KYIV, Ukraine: Russian strikes on Ukraine’s capital and its suburbs killed at least three people, Kyiv’s mayor said Friday as the air force issued a countrywide missile warning.
“Three people died in the capital. Six people were wounded. Three of them were hospitalized,” Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko posted on Telegram.
Regional governor Mykola Kalashnyk urged people to stay in shelters until the air raid sirens lifted.
Ukraine’s air force warned “all of Ukraine is under a missile threat” after confirming Russian bombers were airborne.
In the western city of Lviv, the mayor said “critical infrastructure” was hit.
“All relevant services are working on the site, the fire is being extinguished,” Mayor Andriy Sadovy said.
The latest barrage comes after the US Embassy in Kyiv warned Thursday that a “potentially significant air attack” could occur at any time within the next several days.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had echoed the rare warning in his evening address.
Hours before the attack, Moscow had slammed a post-war plan for European peacekeepers to be deployed to Ukraine and branded Kyiv and its allies an “axis of war.”
European leaders and US envoys have been engaged in a flurry of diplomacy seeking to finalize a plan to end the almost four-year-long conflict.
In its latest iteration, the proposal’s post-war guarantees for Ukraine include a US-led monitoring mechanism and a European multinational force to be deployed once the fighting stops.
Zelensky said Thursday that an agreement was “essentially ready for finalization at the highest level with the President of the United States” following talks between envoys in Paris this week.
Specific details, including about the size of the force and how it would engage, have not been made public.
