Kanjuruhan Stadium Tragedy Defendants Walk Free
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16 March 2023 23:07 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Surabaya District Court ruled that defendant Adj. Comr. Bambang Sidik Achmadi was not guilty in the Kanjuruhan stadium tragedy during a trial held today, March 16.
Bambang is one of the three defendants who are members of the National Police. The other two are the former commanders of East Java Police’s mobile brigade unit Adj. Comr. Hasdarmawan and former head of Malang Police’s operation unit Adj. Comr. Wahyu Setyo Pranoto.
Hasdarmawan was sentenced to one year and 6 months in prison, while Wahyu was not charged or free along with Bambang because the two were not found to have violated the cumulative charges of the public prosecutor Article 359, Article 360 paragraph 1 and Article 360 paragraph 2.
As the commander of the crowd control troops (Dalmas), Bambang Sidik Achmadi also ordered his personnel to fire tear gas at the crowd of supporters.
However, the panel of judges assessed that the tear gas from Dalmas did not injure the football fans because the smoke was blown away by the wind. “There is no causal link between the actions of the defendants who ordered the firing of tear gas and the death of victims,” said the presiding judge Abu Ahmad Siddqi Amsya, concluding the chronology of the stadium disaster.
The lawyer for the victims of the Kanjuruhan stadium tragedy voiced disappointment with the decision of the panel of judges at the Surabaya District Court.
“This decision does not satisfy the victim's sense of justice because it is not comparable to the hundreds of fatalities and injuries,” said the attorney for Aremania Joint Team Anjar Nawan, on Thursday, March 16.
Anjar said the decision was unfair, especially since the defendant was acquitted. He hoped the public prosecutor will file an appeal against the court’s ruling.
Daniel Siagian, Coordinator of the Surabaya Pos Malang Legal Aid Institute, said the judge's decision to acquit the two police defendants and lightly sentence the other defendant was a bad precedent in Indonesian law.
He argued that this is clearly because in the Kanjuruhan stadium tragedy, 135 people died, 24 people were seriously injured, and 623 people were slightly injured. Besides, the judge was deemed apathetic to the grieving victims' families. “This is clearly a bad legal precedent in our country.”
KUKUH S. WIBOWO | EKA YUDHA SAPUTRA
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