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Anger as Surabaya court acquits two police over Kanjuruhan crush
Another officer was jailed for 18 months but families of the victims said he had been treated too leniently.
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Football fans attend a rally in front of the city hall in Malang on November 10, 2022, demanding Indonesian Football Association (PSSI) to be responsible, fair, transparent, and indiscriminate following the deadly stampede at Kanjuruhan Stadium on October 1 which took 135 lives.
(AFP/Juni Kriswanto)
A
district court in East Java on Thursday acquitted two senior police officers charged with negligence over a stadium crowd crush last year that killed 135 people, angering relatives of those who died in one of football's worst tragedies.
Another officer was jailed for 18 months but families of the victims said he had been treated too leniently.
Police had been blamed for triggering the deadly October 1 stampede at Kanjuruhan Stadium in Malang by firing tear gas after supporters invaded the pitch following a 3-2 defeat for Arema FC by their fierce rivals Persebaya Surabaya.
Several relatives of 135 victims, who included 40 children, broke into tears when the judge read the verdicts on the last day of the trial, with one lawyer saying there had been "no justice" for the families.
Malang Police officer Bambang Sidik Achmadi, who was accused of ordering his subordinates to fire tear gas, was found not guilty by the court in Surabaya.
Presiding judge Abu Achmad Sidqi Amsya said the charges had "not been proven", and the defendant was free to go.
Fellow Malang police officer Wahyu Setyo Pranoto was also found not guilty.
