A court sentenced five suspects to between one-and-a-half years and six years Tuesday for their roles in a violent protest last February that led to the death of the North Sumatra legislative council speaker.
The five convicts included protest coordinator Gelmok Samosir, a former student activist, who was jailed for six years in connection with the Feb. 3, 2009 riot.
The Medan District Court also sentenced students Vinci Hutagaol and Toni Pangaribuan to two-and-a-half years in prison respectively, becak (pedicab) driver Masrul Parulian Simbolon to two years and street vendor Robert Hutagalung to one-and-a-half years.
Prosecutors had sought for eight years' imprisonment for Gelmok and seven years for each of the remaining four suspects.
All but one convict, Robert Hutagalung, said they would appeal their verdicts, which were handed down during their separate trials.
Gelmok rejected his court verdict as "unfair", emotionally yelling out at the final trial.
His reaction caused tension in the courtroom but police took immediate action to calm down the crowd.
Gelmok led the protest at the legislative council to demand that it approve a petition for the establishment of Tapanuli province separated from North Sumatra.
The demonstration turned into a riot as protesters stormed into a plenary session of the council and disbanded it. The clash allegedly led to the death of council speaker Abdul Aziz Angkat, who presided over the plenary meeting. He suffered a fatal heart attack during the riot.
At the separate trials, judges ruled that the five defendants were found guilty of involvement in the rampage because they had jointly pushed their way into the plenary meeting room to disperse the forum.
Judge Sutadi, who presided over Gelmok's trial, said the defendant had been proven guilty of brutally disbanding the plenary session prior to the riot.
The protesters also caused havoc by damaging and smashing council property after failing to convince the speaker to approve their demand.
"The defendant's act has tarnished burgeoning democracy in the country. We took this in consideration when determining his sentence," Sutadi told the courtroom.
The fact that Gelmok had never been imprisoned was a mitigation factor for his punishment, he added.
Unlike Gelmok, another defendant Robert Hutagalung, 59, said he could accept his one-and-half year jail term.
"It is a fair court verdict for me," the liquor street vendor told reporters after his separate trial at the same court, which his wife attended.
Judge Rumintang Sianipar, who presided over Robert's trial, said the verdict was lenient in consideration of the defendant's advanced age.
"The defendant is 59 years old, too old to serve a heavy sentence. We did it for humanitarian reasons."
She said Robert would only serve 10 months in prison because he has been detained for eight months since the February riot.
The five brings the number of convicted defendants to 33 out of 69 suspects in the riot.
The same court is now trying eight main suspects, including three former provincial councilors, for allegedly masterminding the protest.
The eight defendants include the chairman of a committee to establish the breakaway province, and former provincial councilors Chandra Panggabean, Datumira Simanjuntak and Burhanuddin Rajagukguk.
