Any bets on how this is going to work out for her? I have spent a lot of years reading of cases of foreigners caught up in the Indonesian legal system. I can't recall any of them with the sentence being reduced or dismissed. I may be biased, but my recollection was the majority of the cases the sentence was increased. It is as if the Indonesian legal system punishes a foreigner for filing an appeal. Does anyone have any better insight on this? Am I subject to selection or media bias?
I thing it is "unfair" to say it like that albeit I understand where you come from.
There are countless cases where sentences for foreigners have been decreased by an appeal court and there is now legal room for a foreigner to apply for parole, allowing him/her not to do his/her full sentence.
An example of it is well know, the case of HC (
Read about it in the old junk) for example who went from a binding death sentence to an astonishing 12 years sentence through a presidential pardon. Reports from a fellow death row convict was that such presidential pardon could cost between 1M and 3M.
Also you may consider that Neil Bantleman got first freed and acquitted by the High Court before having his sentence reinstated (and increased) by the Supreme Court.
Last, you have the case of Michael Blanc, arrested in December 1999 who got a life sentence, which has been reduced to 20 years, allowing him to profit from the
remisi twice a ear and finally being paroled after 14 ears in jail in January 2014.
These are just some examples, but really there are much more. I think that if you read the whole thread in the link I provided above, I have listed a few decisions of "justice" in it where sentences have been increased or decreased on appeal.
Basically, and this is something foreigners have troubles to grasp, the more public your case is, the less chance you have to get away with a fair sentence. Bringing an ambassador in the case and a cohort of foreign journalist is begging for a guilty verdict in most, if not all cases. Nationalism is so strong and lobbies so powerful that even if you bring all proofs and expertise you may dream of pointing at the fact that you are innocent, you will still have strong chances to be sent to jail.
We had a thread some time ago about Expat & Indonesian Justice:
https://www.expatindo.org/community/threads/expat-court-victories.4042/
