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our 12th grade students from SMAN 3 state senior high school in South Jakarta were each given on Tuesday at the South Jakarta District Court a suspended 18-month prison sentence and two years'€™ probation for causing the death of 16-year-old Arfiand Caesar Al Irhami.

The panel of judges declared the four underage defendants, including one girl, were proven guilty of negligence resulting in death under Article 359 of the Criminal Code (KUHP), in conjunction with articles 55 and 64 of the KUHP for what they called collective and continuous crimes.

'€œWe have found the defendants guilty of collective and continuous negligence resulting in the death of the victim. The defendants are sentenced to imprisonment of one year and six months, with probation for two years,'€ presiding judge Made Sutisna said.

Sutisna explained that the four students would be immediately released from detention and undergo a two-year probationary period. If the defendants commit a crime within two years, they will be sent to prison.

The trial was closed to the public because the four defendants were tried under the juvenile justice system, being just were 16 and 17 years old, but the verdict was handed down in an open session attended by their friends and families and the victim'€™s relatives.

The SMAN 3 case surfaced last June when 10th-grader Arfiand passed away following a week'€™s medical treatment at a private hospital in Kuningan, South Jakarta. The family, suspicious about the victim'€™s death, filed a police report after doctors at the hospital found 37 bruises on his body.

According to the police investigation, the four senior students admitted to using violence against their juniors, including the victim, during a mountain climb of Mount Tangkuban Perahu in Bandung, West Java.

The city administration has fired the senior high school'€™s principal, deputy principal and two teachers who accompanied the students during the school outing for negligence in monitoring the student activity.

The sentence is lighter than the three years sought by the prosecutors for torture under Article 80 of the 2002 Child Protection Law. The prosecutors had also demanded the panel impose Rp 25 million in fines, or an additional six months of social work.

The panel of judges said neither the police nor the prosecutors had adequate evidence to prove the defendants used violence to kill Arfiand, as in accordance with Article 80.

Sutisna said he believed that the senior students used violence not to kill the victim but to encourage him to abide by all the rules imposed by alumni for the school'€™s outdoor activity.

However, the panel of judges said they found the defendants guilty of intentionally ignoring the victim'€™s condition of poor health during the outing.

'€œThis is not an excuse. As part of the school activity'€™s organizing committee, the defendants were expected to prioritize the well-being of their juniors ahead of the orders from the alumni. The consequences of not obeying their alumni would not have been as dire,'€ he said. (fss)