TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Community Legal Aid Institute (LBH Masyarakat) director Ricky Gunawan said that the execution of Nigerian drug convict Humprey Jefferson, a.k.a. Humprey Ejike, was illegal.
“The decision [to execute Humprey Jefferson] violated two laws,” Ricky told Tempo on Friday, July 29, 2016.
Ricky explained that the first law violated was Law No. 22/2002 on Clemency, stating that an appeal for clemency can suspend an execution.
“Humprey had filed an appeal for clemency on July 25, 2016. But still, he was executed,” Ricky added.
Another law violated by the decision was the Law on the National Program of Formulating Standards of Execution Procedures, according to Ricky. The law says that an execution shall be carried out 72 hours after a notification is issued. Ricky claimed that the notification of Humprey’s execution was received on Tuesday, July 26, 2016.
“The execution should be carried out on Friday evening, July 29, 2016,” he added.
Ricky said that Humprey had experienced violations of fair trial rights, claiming that “his case was engineered."
According to Ricky, Humprey was framed by Charles “Kelly” Kanu, a had deceased drug convict. Before his death, Kelly admitted the framing and apologized to Humprey, as witnessed by seven people.
Ricky handed over Kelly’s statement to the Supreme Court as evidence in a bid to appeal for judicial review. However, the Supreme Court viewed that the evidence was not enough.
“The legal consideration, which the death sentence was based on, contains racism,” Ricky said.
He quoted the verdict, saying that “Considering that [...] black people from Nigeria have been subjects of police supervision.” Ricky viewed that being supervised does not necessarily mean that Humprey was involved in drugs syndicate.
He revealed that several African death row convicts, whom he met in the isolation room, had complained about the racist treatment.
“They felt being specifically targeted,” Ricky added.
VINDRY FLORENTIN
