Minors face six years in prison for murder

Two underage children in the East Java town of Kediri are each facing six years in prison for allegedly helping their mother kill their grandmother’s sister, kompas.com reported.

State prosecutors indicted the two siblings, Ba, 14, and Ags, 9, in a hearing at the Kediri District Court on Tuesday.

“The defendants violated Article 340 paragraph 1 of the Criminal Court on premeditated murder. Because they are only minors, we seek a six-year prison sentence for each of them,” prosecutor Mulyono told the court.

Ba, a first-year student at junior high school, and his brother Ags, a third-year student in elementary school, were asked by their mother Riyamah, who is also standing trial, to kill Supiyatun, 65, on March 20 this year.

Investigators said Riyamah committed the murder to seize Supiyatun’s belongings to sell to feed her children and to pay the monthly installment of her motorcycle she had bought on credit.

Ba did not have the heart to kill his grandmother, but Riyamah insisted that he had to help her or he would starve to death.

Riyamah ordered Ags to help her strangle Supiyatun to death and asked Ba to help her wrap the body in a plastic bag and dump it in the river.