The Jakarta Globe, Nurfika Osman, March 26, 2009
The government announced sentence reductions for 387 Hindu prisoners across the archipelago on Thursday to mark the Hindu Day of Silence, or Nyepi, an official said.
Reductions ranged from 15 days to two months, allowing 12 inmates to be released from prison, said Muhammad Sueb, a spokesman for the country’s correctional institutions.
Untung Sugiono, the director general of correctional institutions at the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, will officially announce the cuts at a ceremony on Wednesday at Denpasar Prison, Bali Province.
“We chose Denpasar to make the announcement because the majority of Bali’s residents are Hindu,” Sueb said, explaining that 253 of the inmates who received sentence reductions were in Bali’s nine prisons.
“Seven of the [inmates in Bali] are set to walk free.”
Sentence cuts have traditionally been given to mark Independence Day on Aug. 17, and for major religious holidays — Idul Fitri for Muslims, Christmas for Christians, and Waisak for Buddhists.
Sueb said all of the inmates who received the reductions had behaved well during their terms.
“The reductions are a reward for those who behaved,” he said.
All prisoners who had already served a year of their sentence were eligible for the cuts, except those convicted of terrorism, graft, illegal logging or drug-related crimes.
Inmates who had already served a year received the minimum cut of 15 days. Those who had served six years or more were given two months off.
Last year, 348 Hindu inmates received sentence reductions. Sueb said the cuts would also ease overcrowding in prisons.
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