Along with the high-profile pleas to save the Australian Bali Nine pair from the Indonesian firing squad, there’s another desperate attempt to save a death row prisoner that doesn’t have the same amount of press as Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran.
A Brazilian family is pleading with the Indonesian government to spare their son from the firing squad because he has been diagnosed as mentally ill. The family has reportedly submitted a full medical report and is desperately that it’s considered.
Brazilian man Rodrigo Gularte, 42, was issued the death sentence in 2005 for trying to smuggle 6 kilograms of cocaine into Indonesia hidden inside surfboards, according to the Guardian.
Gularte’s family is begging for his life because he has been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic who is delusional with psychotic tendencies.
The Brazilian surfer is in the second “batch” of 11 death row inmates that are slated to be killed this year, after the first group was executed on January 18.
After Gularte got the death sentence, he reportedly tried to kill himself by self-immolation in his prison cell and he hasn’t been right since.
“Rodrigo is very sick and needs treatment,” his cousin, Angelita Muxfeldt, told Guardian Australia.
“We heard that people here think that we are lying about his mental condition,” she said, “but last year we hired all these doctors to examine him.”
The Indonesian attorney general’s office has cited Gularte’s mental instability as a reason why executions have been delayed. “While there is uncertainty about whether Mr Gularte suffers from a mental illness it is difficult for us to conduct the execution,” said Tony Spontana, a spokesman for attorney general, as quoted by the Guardian. “We have to be sure he is fully recovered before the execution.”
According to the Guardian’s report, a person with a mental disorder cannot be sentenced for a criminal act and should be taken to the hospital, under Indonesian penal code. While executing a mentally ill person would also conflict with international law.
Photo by AFP
