If you buy more than 40,000 people including Inni and Papua independence activists... "to relieve overcrowding in prisons."

Indonesia has decided to pardon more than 40,000 inmates for overcrowding.

Justice Minister Supratman Andi Agtas held a news conference and said he planned to pardon about 44,000 inmates nationwide to realize humanitarianism and relieve overcrowding in prisons, according to local media including Daily Compass.

Indonesia's Ministry of Justice explained that the capacity of prisons and detention centers nationwide is 145,000, but about 274,000 are actually in prison, about twice the capacity.

Local media said half of the inmates are drug-related criminals, and Indonesian prisons are notoriously overcrowded in Southeast Asia, as the Indonesian judiciary is so strict about drug crimes that it sentences even small amounts of drug possession and focuses on incarceration rather than rehabilitation.

For this reason, the pardon is expected to include a large number of people who buy sentences for simple drug possession.

He added that those who were independent in Papua will also be pardoned, but those arrested during armed struggle are excluded.

Papua, Indonesia, is a western part of the island of New Guinea and is Indonesian territory, unlike the eastern Papua New Guinea, which is an independent country.

Papua declared independence as West New Guinea in 1961, but was forcibly occupied by Indonesian forces and incorporated into Indonesia through a referendum in 1969.

But Papua independence activists claim independence, saying the vote was rigged.