Indonesia to reconsider granting automatic sentence cuts News
Indonesia to reconsider granting automatic sentence cuts

[JURIST] The Indonesian government is reviewing a decree granting automatic sentence remissions to prisoners, Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda said Friday. The announcement follows protests from Australia over news that cleric Abu Bakir Bashir [BBC profile], convicted for his role in the 2002 Bali bombings [CNN backgrounder], is up for another sentence reduction in November. Indonesia will consider revising the presidential decree on remissions for serious crimes, including terrorism, however Wirayuda denied that the review is being made in response to Australia's criticisms. Currently, sentence cuts are granted automatically to well-behaved prisoners to mark Independence Day and religious festivals and apply to all imprisoned who have served at least six months. In an interview [transcript] earlier this week, Australian Prime Minister John Howard [official website] said that any further remissions given to Bashir would cause "very deep and lasting anger" in Australia. AFP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Ku Klux Klan founded

The US hate group known as the Ku Klux Klan was founded on December 24, 1865 in Pulaski, Tennessee as a reaction to reconstruction efforts following the Union victory in the American Civil War. The group would later become notorious for its attacks on Black Americans, being targeted by the Enforcement Act of 1871, which imposed civil and criminal liability for deprivation of constitutional rights. Read the Enforcement Act of 1871.  

Hamid Karzai born

On December 24, 1957, Hamid Karzai was born in Karz, Afghanistan. He would go on to become in 2004 his country's first elected president after the end of Taliban rule in 2001.