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
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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
French publisher recalls dictionary over ‘Jewish settler’ reference
- The entry in French reads: “In October 2023, following the death of more than 1,200 Jewish settlers in a series of Hamas attacks”
- The four books are subject to a recall procedure and will be destroyed, Hachette said
PARSI: French publisher Hachette on Friday said it had recalled a dictionary that described the Israeli victims of the October 7, 2023 attacks as “Jewish settlers” and promised to review all its textbooks and educational materials.
The Larousse dictionary for 11- to 15-year-old students contained the same phrase as that discovered by an anti-racism body in three revision books, the company told AFP.
The entry in French reads: “In October 2023, following the death of more than 1,200 Jewish settlers in a series of Hamas attacks, Israel decided to tighten its economic blockade and invade a large part of the Gaza Strip, triggering a major humanitarian crisis in the region.”
The worst attack in Israeli history saw militants from the Palestinian Islamist group kill around 1,200 people in settlements close to the Gaza Strip and at a music festival.
“Jewish settlers” is a term used to describe Israelis living on illegally occupied Palestinian land.
The four books, which were immediately withdrawn from sale, are subject to a recall procedure and will be destroyed, Hachette said, promising a “thorough review of its textbooks, educational materials and dictionaries.”
France’s leading publishing group, which came under the control of the ultra-conservative Vincent Bollore at the end of 2023, has begun an internal inquiry “to determine how such an error was made.”
It promised to put in place “a new, strengthened verification process for all its future publications” in these series.
President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday said that it was “intolerable” that the revision books for the French school leavers’ exam, the baccalaureat, “falsify the facts” about the “terrorist and antisemitic attacks by Hamas.”
“Revisionism has no place in the Republic,” he wrote on X.
Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, with 251 people taken hostage, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Authorities in Gaza estimate that more than 70,000 people have been killed by Israeli forces during their bombardment of the territory since, while nearly 80 percent of buildings have been destroyed or damaged, according to UN data.
Israeli forces have killed at least 447 Palestinians in Gaza since a ceasefire took effect in October, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
