Medan, Indonesia – Indonesia’s so-called “trial of the century” has concluded with a senior police officer sentenced to demise for the homicide of his bodyguard.
Ferdy Sambo, the previous head of Indonesia’s Inner Affairs division and a two-star common, was handed the demise penalty on Monday by Chief Justice Wahyu Imam Santoso for the killing of his aide-de-camp, Police Brigadier Nofriansyah Yosua Hutabarat, in a case broadly seen as a litmus take a look at of police accountability in Indonesia.
“The defendant embarrassed Indonesia’s police pressure each at residence and internationally, and concerned different members of the police pressure in his crime,” Choose Santoso mentioned to cheers as he handed down the sentence within the packed courtroom in South Jakarta.
In his sentencing remarks, which took greater than 4 hours to learn, Santoso and the panel of two different judges mentioned that Sambo had deliberate the homicide of Hutabarat and conspired to cowl up any proof of the crime by destroying closed-circuit video footage.
In accordance with Santoso, Sambo first ordered certainly one of his bodyguards, Richard Eliezer Pudihang Lumiu, to shoot the 27-year-old Hutabarat at Sambo’s residence in Jakarta on July 8, 2022, earlier than placing on black gloves and firing extra pictures into Hutabarat’s physique.
The case has fascinated and appalled Indonesians for months, with courtroom proceedings exposing the police to uncommon scrutiny.
“The decision conformed to the regulation and the general public sense of justice,” Ian Wilson from Murdoch College’s Indo-Pacific Analysis Centre informed Al Jazeera. “The extreme media scrutiny and public curiosity, together with the details of the case, meant a harsh sentence for Sambo was inevitable.”
The prosecution had requested for a life sentence, suggesting an affair between Hutabarat and Sambo’s spouse, Putri Candrawathi, offered a motive for the killing. Hutabarat’s household mentioned they didn’t imagine that any such affair happened as Hutabarat was in a dedicated relationship.
Candrawathi was additionally on trial alongside Sambo, additionally charged with premeditated homicide.
Talking following Sambo’s sentencing, Hutabarat’s mom, Rosti Simanjuntak, mentioned that God had been current on the trial and granted the household a miracle for “the drops of blood that flowed from my baby”.
“We needed to be affected person and we reward the courtroom as a result of the sentence was in step with the household’s needs,” she informed the media.
Sambo and Candrawathi had claimed of their defence that Hutabarat had sexually assaulted Candrawathi earlier than being killed in a gunfight with Lumiu.
Choose Santoso mentioned that there was no proof that any sexual assault had taken place and that the firefight appeared to have been staged.
When addressing the allegations of an affair, the choose mentioned that the courtroom didn’t want to offer a motive for the crime, and that Indonesian regulation solely wanted to show {that a} crime had been dedicated and that the accused had dedicated it.
Abuse of belief
Ranto Sibarani, a human rights lawyer who grew up in Jambi, the identical province as Hutabarat, informed Al Jazeera that the demise sentence was applicable provided that Sambo was a regulation enforcement officer.
“He was supposed to guard the general public as a police officer and discover and catch murderers, not grow to be a assassin himself,” Sibarani mentioned. “He was given a weapon and the belief to make use of it correctly by the state, and he abused that weapon and his place as the pinnacle of inner affairs.”
When sentencing Sambo to demise, Chief Justice Santoso mentioned the annoying elements that led to the demise sentence included the very fact Sambo had killed his personal aide-de-camp and had triggered nice ache to Hutabarat’s household. He added that Sambo’s actions additionally triggered discomfort locally and have been unbefitting a member of regulation enforcement. Santoso mentioned there have been no mitigating elements and famous Sambo had proven no regret for his crime.
In Indonesia, the demise sentence is normally carried out by firing squad.
Sambo’s spouse, Putri Candrawathi, in the meantime, was sentenced to twenty years in jail within the hours after her husband’s sentencing — a far long term than the eight years the prosecution had requested for.
When sentencing Candrawathi, the judges mentioned that she had sullied the identify of the Indonesian police because the spouse of a police officer and may have offered a superb instance to the general public. The judges additionally mentioned there have been no mitigating elements in Candrawathi’s case.
Sambo and Candrawathi can each enchantment their sentences, though they’ve but to point that they’ll.
Each have been on trial together with three different defendants additionally charged with premeditated homicide and who will probably be sentenced over the following two days.
They embrace Candrawathi’s private assistant Kuat Ma’ruf, who was given 15 years, Sambo’s bodyguard Ricky Rizal Wibowo, in addition to junior police officer Richard Eliezer Pudihang Lumiu, who admitted that he fired a number of pictures into Hutabarat on Sambo’s orders. He later collaborated with the police.
The prosecution has requested for eight-year phrases for Ma’ruf and Wibowo, and a 12-year time period for Lumiu.
Indonesia’s police on trial
In a press release, Amnesty Indonesia mentioned that the case ought to function a reminder to the police that it wanted to make critical enhancements in its inner operations and that this was “not the primary time {that a} police officer had been concerned in an extrajudicial killing”.
“Failure to make sure accountability has the potential to result in repeated human rights violations by officers,” the assertion mentioned. Amnesty is against the demise penalty in all circumstances.
Indonesia’s police pressure can be on trial over the lethal crush on the Kanjuruhan stadium in October final yr that left 135 individuals useless after police fired tear gasoline indiscriminately at soccer followers, a few of whom have been younger kids.
Three cops and three match officers are presently on trial in each felony and civil instances involving the deaths.
In a survey in August final yr, the pollster Indikator Politik Indonesia discovered that simply 54.2 % of the Indonesian public had belief within the police, in contrast with 58.8 % within the Corruption Eradication Fee and 63.4 % within the Legal professional Common’s Workplace.
Nonetheless, Murdoch College’s Wilson says he doubts the case will end in any long-lasting reform of the nationwide police regardless of the damning image it portrayed of the establishment.
“Whereas it could possibly be learn as displaying there are limits to police impunity, I believe this shouldn’t be overstated,” he mentioned. “It’s a excessive profile case through which the sufferer and perpetrator are police. It was inevitable {that a} heavy sentence can be handed down. You may examine this, for instance, to the dearth of progress and systemic obstruction in accountability for the Kanjuruhan catastrophe.”
Sibarani, nonetheless, is extra optimistic and mentioned that the case and the verdicts might function a catalyst for change, notably if seen alongside different instances that would present extra momentum for reform.
“After all, there may be all the time an opportunity of police reform if the federal government and the president need it. Notably now after Kanjuruhan and the Sambo instances,” he mentioned.