Our Legal System Will Not Bend for Foreigners: SBY

July 02, 2011



President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said foreigners who breach the law on Indonesian soil will face due process in the judicial system even as he expressed disappointment over Saudi Arabia’s recent beheading of an Indonesian worker.

“Humanitarian issues are important, maintaining good bilateral relations is important, but justice and upholding the legal system should not be neglected,” Yudhoyono said following a meeting with visiting French Prime Minister Francois Fillon.

The president was responding to a French journalist who asked how the case of detained Frenchman Michael Blanc affected the bilateral relationship.

Blanc was convicted of drug trafficking in Bali in November 2000 after 3.8 kilograms of hashish was found in his diving gear. He was initially sentenced to life imprisonment, but Yudhoyono later reduced the sentence to a 20-years jail term. He is being held in Kerobokan prison.

Blanc has sought a lighter sanction, requesting public figures including Prince Albert of Monaco and former French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac press the Indonesian government to free him.

Fillon said that during the discussion, Yudhoyono had expressed his concern for the welfare of Blanc’s family.

“There have been procedures followed by his lawyers, and they were in line with the Indonesian legal system,” Fillon said. “Our embassy in Jakarta keeps up-to-date on the situation.”

Fillon said that he met Blanc’s mother Helene Le Touzey on Thursday night. The French government had earlier made a request for extradition, in 2005 asking Indonesia about the possibility of moving Blanc to a prison in his home country.

Yudhoyono said Indonesia had sought the same thing in cases where its citizens are convicted abroad and face a death sentence or other heavy sanction.

“In those cases we did all we could, including appealing on humanitarian grounds and those of good bilateral relations,” Yudhoyono said.

“However, Indonesia respects the authority of the legal system in each nation.”

(x the JG)

( and I suppose he also did not know all that dope was in his gear, just the $$$ would have been handy if he could have sold it, now he pays the price!)
siK