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Ade Sara murder case indictment 'full of holes'
Lawyers for former lovebirds Ahmad Imam Al Hafitd and Assyifa Ramadhani, who are standing trial at the Central Jakarta District Court for allegedly murdering 19-year-old Ade Sara Angelina Suroto, have asked the panel of judges to declare the case void by law due to a lack of evidence that the couple carried out premeditated murder
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awyers for former lovebirds Ahmad Imam Al Hafitd and Assyifa Ramadhani, who are standing trial at the Central Jakarta District Court for allegedly murdering 19-year-old Ade Sara Angelina Suroto, have asked the panel of judges to declare the case void by law due to a lack of evidence that the couple carried out premeditated murder.
'We are asking the panel of judges to declare the case void by law because the charges don't match the indictment. The prosecutor's indictment only made it clear that my client [Assyifa] and Hafitd planned to kidnap the victim, not to murder her,' Assyifa's lawyer, M. Syafri Noer, told the judges on Tuesday.
Previously, prosecutors indicted Hafitd and Assyifa under multiple articles of the Criminal Code (KUHP), including Article 340, which stipulates a maximum of 20 years' imprisonment for premeditated murder.
According to the indictment, the two defendants planned to kidnap Sara, Hafitd's ex-girlfriend, after Assyifa discovered a text message from Sara on Hafitd's phone. The two then picked Sara up from an extracurricular class at the Goethe Institute in Central Jakarta before torturing her ' gagging her, inflicting electric shocks and beating her for hours ' in Hafitd's car on March 3.
After killing Sara, according to the indictment, the couple dumped her body on the side of the Bintara toll road in Bekasi, where it was found two days later.
An autopsy carried out at the Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital in Central Jakarta suggested that Sara had died from suffocation, as there was clotting in her oral cavity and indications that she had experienced difficulty breathing.
Syafri argued that the lack of evidence for premeditated murder was also supported by the fact that there were no weapons usually used for murder, such as firearms or knives, described in the indictment. The prosecutors were also unable to describe how Assyifa and Hafitd allegedly killed Sara, which went against Article 143 of the Criminal Law Procedures Code (KUHAP).
The article says that indictments are only deemed suitable if they can describe who, when, where and how a crime was conducted.
'Furthermore, the prosecutors could not pinpoint when and where the victim died exactly, meaning that they could not implicate our client in premeditated murder,' he said.
Hafitd's lawyer, Hendrayanto, also accused the state prosecutors of ignoring the facts and only pursuing the case because of pressure from the public and the media.
Hendrayanto added that the judges should deem the case void by law because the trial commenced on Aug. 6 without the presence of the defendants' lawyers.
According to Article 56 of the KUHAP, anyone threatened with a prison sentence of 15 years or more should be accompanied by a lawyer. If a defendant does not have a lawyer, the court must provide one, Hendrayanto said.
After hearing the lawyers' request, the state prosecution team requested a formal hearing of their decision when the trial resumes next Tuesday. (fss)
