President of Indonesia Your Excellency, I am the wife of Steven Lim Yong Nam, a Singaporean citizen who has been detained by Batam Riau Island Police (Polda Kepri) on Oct 23, 2014 and I am writing earnestly to seek your Governments cooperation to release my husband. In 2011, the United States had requested from the Singapore Government for the extradition of my husband, together with three other Singaporeans. Even though Singapore has an Extradition Treaty with the US, my husband was not sent to the US as he was not found guilty of the alleged offence that the US has accused him of doing. My husband was acquitted by the Singapore High Court and regained his freedom back in 2012. As a businessman, he travelled frequently for work. He has travelled to countries like Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and even Indonesia after his acquittal and has never encountered any problem, even though his name has been on Interpols Red Notice since Sept 12, 2013. Most importantly, he has also travelled Jakarta last September without any problem. The US government is accusing my husband of breaking their law. And in the eyes of Singapore, he is a person who has been freed because the wrongdoing he was accused of, was not even an offence in our country. However in the eyes of our two and five-years old daughters, he is a super dad, the best dad who not only cooks their meals, iron their dresses, wash their shoes, but he is also their swim coach, playmate and someone who is able to teach them anything they wish to learn from making rainbow-coloured bracelets to learning dance moves from the popular Disney movie Frozen. Now all these simple yet joyful moments have been taken away from our daughters and my husband so abruptly and cruelly. Everyday they will ask me the same questions when will Papa be back home? Will he bring us to attend the Christmas mass? When can he return and bring us for swimming? Can we return to our own home to put up Christmas tree with Papa soon?. After the verdict from the High Court in 2012, it was for the sake of our children and with my constant encouragement, he decided to pick up his courage and started to look for new business opportunities after two full years without any income. Before our family could see any efforts from his hard work, the same tragedy struck on us yet again. This path has been indescribably far more painful than the first simply because we have no one who can help us. Seeing my husband being detained in a foreign country all because he wants to provide for my family drove me to become determined to exhaust all avenues to save him. I have put up our house for sale because all our savings have been wiped out in paying for legal fees for the first extradition case. To save my husband, I have been knocking on all doors I could possibly think of. From meeting our Singapore ministers, our Consular in Batam and Ministry of Foreign Affairs to even flying out to Jakarta hoping to meet and appeal to all the relevant Indonesian ministries including Ministry of Law, Human Rights Groups, Ministry of Immigration and Deportation as well as Interpol Jakarta. But Sir, all your authorities gave me the same reply – this is at a government to government level. It is beyond my means as no matter how determined I am and how hard I try, there is very little I could do to save my husband. Ultimately, the only one person who can truly save my husband, who can truly set him free, is you Sir. I beg you to listen to my petition that you will do the right thing by releasing my husband back to me. Not only his basic freedom has being taken away twice but to take him away from his family twice will cripple and break him given his current mental state of mind has again been made worse by his arrest in Batam. His severe depression first started when he was going through the ordeal of his first extradition and he also blamed himself for his absence while I was carrying his second child. Just when he managed to get out of depression and tries to fulfill his responsibility as a father, he is now being jailed without committing any offence in your country. Indonesia is well-regarded for being a great democratic country. I believe the Indonesian Government will not simply accede to the request of the U.S. to extradite my husband because I firmly know that he has done no wrongdoing in any of our countries and that his freedom will be given back to him. Lastly, I beg of you to release my husband, your Excellency. Yours sincerely, Wife of Steven Lim Yong Nam (Mrs. May Lim)
Posted on: Tue, 16 Dec 2014 14:47:00 +0000
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