Laborer gets 10 years for rape, murder

Judges at the Denpasar District Court on Thursday sentenced a man to 10 years in jail for his role in the murder of Japanese woman Hiromi Shimada last year.

Abdurrahman alias Abdu, 21, was found guilty for assisting Mawardi, in killing the 41-year-old woman in the victim’s rented house in Kuta on December 25, 2009.

“The defendant is guilty for intentionally giving chance for Mawardi to commit the murder, preceded and followed by sexual molestation and theft,” presiding judge Putu Suika said when reading out the verdict.

The panel of judges said the defendant had violated article 339 of the Criminal Code.

The verdict was lighter than the 13 years of imprisonment demanded by prosecutors.

Suika said that among legal considerations in the case was that the defendant’s actions had tarnished the image of Bali as the world’s prominent tourist destination.

Abdu and Mawardi, both laborers working at a site near the victim’s house, met Shimada the night of the murder at a small shop near her rented house in Tuban, Kuta.