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Postelection rioters found guilty, to be released soon
A number of people who participated in the May 21-22 postelection protests have been found guilty of disobeying authorities who told them to disperse when the protest turned into a riot
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span>A number of people who participated in the May 21-22 postelection protests have been found guilty of disobeying authorities who told them to disperse when the protest turned into a riot.
Some, however, will be released by next week, while others immediately obtained their freedom as they had served their detention period throughout the trial process.
At the West Jakarta District Court, presiding judge Rita Elsy sentenced 10 people, Hartono, 43, Abdul Rohim, 34, Arifin, 29, Indra Gunawan, 24, Achmad Ismail, 25, Wahyu, 29, Herman, 22, Aksan, 18, Febby, 23, and Nurdin, 23, to four months in jail for participating in the riot on May 22 near the Mobile Brigade (Brimob) compound in Petamburan, West Jakarta.
Rita said the defendants had violated articles 218, 55(1) and 53(1) of the Criminal Code (KUHP) for disobeying the orders of authorities on duty to disperse from the area during the riot.
“[The defendants] are sentenced to four months in jail each,” Rita told the court on Tuesday.
The sentence is the same as the prosecutor’s demand.
As the defendants had already been detained at the Jakarta Police headquarters for almost four months during the trial, they will be set free next week.
“[The sentences] will be cut with their detainment time. Therefore, by next week, the defendants will have finished their sentences,” Rita said.
Upon hearing the verdict, the defendants and their families attending the trial appeared happy and hugged each other while uttering their gratitude.
One of the defendant’s relatives in attendance, Entin, said she was glad she would be able to reunite with her son, Indra Gunawan, soon.
“Alhamdulillah [praise God] I am thankful. I am happy that I will meet my son at home soon. We can reunite again,” Entin said.
On Monday, Sept 9, at the Central Jakarta District Court, the court also found several defendants guilty but allowed them to be immediately released because they had been detained for around three months at the Jakarta Police headquarters.
The defendants were Rendy Bugis Petta Lolodan, head of Garuda Emas volunteer group for the Prabowo Subianto — Sandiaga Uno presidential ticket in West Nusa Tenggara, and six other defendants in the same case, Abdurrais Ishak, Jumawal, Syamsul Huda, Vivi Andrian, Yoga Firdaus and Zulkadri Purnama Yuda.
Other defendants in the postelection riot case were members of the Islam Defenders Front (FPI) Lampung chapter Armin Melani and Sandi Maulana as well as other defendants Ahmad Rifai, Jabbar Khomeini, Joni Afriyanto and Sofyanto.
In both cases, the defendants were charged under Article 218 of the KUHP for refusing to disperse after authorities had told them to do so up to three times, and faced a maximum jail sentence of four months and two weeks.
Presiding judge for both cases, Makmur, found the defendants guilty and sentenced them to three months and 20 days.
“I hereby declare that it is proven the defendants are guilty of disobeying the authorities on duty for public order,” Makmur said.
The judge said the sentence was lighter than was demanded considering that the defendants had never been sentenced for crimes before and had behaved politely during the trial.
As the defendants had been detained at the Jakarta Police headquarters for three months and 19 days, the judge ruled that by the next day, Sept. 10, the defendants were free to go and the items confiscated from the defendants as evidence would be returned.
A slingshot and 35 marble balls had been confiscated from defendant Sandi Maulana as evidence.
The police also confiscated three Garuda Emas’ uniforms and US$2,760 in cash from Rendy.
Meanwhile, the trial of 29 Sarinah shopping center employees accused of assisting the rioters scheduled for Tuesday had to be rescheduled to Thursday because the prosecutors were not ready to read out their demand.
Prosecutor Yerich Mochda said the prosecutors had not received permission to read the demand from the Jakarta Prosecutor’s Office.
One of the defendants’ lawyers, Oky Wiratama of the Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation (LBH Jakarta), said the judge should have waited for all lawyers to present before rescheduling the trial.
The Sarinah employees were charged under articles 214, 216 and 218 of the KUHP for letting the postelection rioters enter the area around Sarinah and giving them water to drink and wash their faces to continue rioting.
At a separate hearing, three people, namely Iskandar Hamid, 70, Obby Nugraha, 33, and Yayan Hendrayana, 59, stood trial for allegedly bringing an ambulance emblazoned with the Gerindra Party logo that was filled with rocks suspected to be for rioters instead of medical equipment. All of them work for Gerindra’s Tasikmalaya branch in West Java.
“The ambulance was only a disguise to suggest they were helping victims of the riot, but instead it was actually used to store rocks inside the vehicle,” prosecutor for the case Nopriandi said on Monday.
The defendants have been charged under articles 170, 212 and 218 of the KUHP.
