Govt Discusses Draft Response to Indonesia-Malaysia Prisoner Transfer Agreement

RRI.CO.ID, Jakarta – Indonesia’s Coordinating Ministry for Law, Human Rights, Immigration and Corrections held a follow-up meeting on the draft response to the Transfer of Sentenced Persons Agreement between the governments of Indonesia and Malaysia in Jakarta on Tuesday, September 22, 2026. The ministry said the meeting was part of efforts to strengthen coordination and align ministries and government agencies' views before the Indonesian government submits its official response to the Malaysian government.

Secretary of the coordinating ministry R. Andika Dwi Prasetya, in his opening remarks, said the forum played an important role in ensuring a common understanding among ministries and government agencies while drafting the Indonesian government’s response. He expressed hope that the discussions would result in a constructive agreement while strengthening legal cooperation between Indonesia and Malaysia for the benefit of people in both countries.

"Through this acceleration, I hope all participants will be willing to convey their views, opinions, input, and thoughts where deemed necessary," he said, as quoted from the coordinating ministry's website.

Meanwhile, Deputy for Legal Coordination Nofli, said cooperation on the transfer of sentenced persons between Indonesia and Malaysia was a strategic instrument of international legal cooperation. According to Nofli, the Indonesian government has taken a "firm and consistent" position in pursuing a formal and legally binding bilateral treaty to ensure legal certainty and accountability in prisoner transfers.

Nofli explained that the main material discussed was the initial draft proposal submitted by the Malaysian government to the Indonesian government, for which a response had subsequently been prepared. "From the draft, we identified five crucial areas that need to be discussed," Nofli said.

The five issues include the exclusion of death penalty cases; the principles of voluntary consent and consular access; verification of citizenship status and a requirement for at least 24 months of the remaining sentence to be served; post-transfer monitoring rights and immigration refusal measures; and the funding mechanism. According to Nofli, the coordination meeting seeks to reach agreement on the Indonesian government’s draft, which would subsequently serve as material for negotiations with the Malaysian government.

"Every proposal, correction, and adjustment to technical terms from the Ministry of Immigration and Corrections, the Ministry of Law, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Attorney General’s Office, the Supreme Court, and other invited parties will be edited in real time until we reach a point of agreement," he said.

He stressed the importance of active participation from all parties in providing constructive input. Cross-ministerial and inter-agency collaboration was considered essential to ensuring that Indonesia’s response could be formulated comprehensively while taking into account the respective interests and responsibilities of each institution.

Input from ministries and government agencies on the Draft Indonesia-Malaysia Transfer of Sentenced Persons Agreement will serve as a basis for Indonesia in further negotiations with Malaysia. In general, ministries and government agencies support the Transfer of Sentenced Persons Agreement, but stressed the need to exercise caution during the negotiations.

The forum also agreed to push for the Bill on Transfer of Sentenced Persons to be enacted into law as soon as possible. This could serve as the Indonesian government’s basic legal position in implementing the transfer of sentenced persons, whether through bilateral or regional agreements.