Sundarti not guilty, says family<\/p>\n
ID Nugroho, The Jakarta Post, Magetan<\/p>\n
Sujinah, 60, kept quiet in her wheelchair when The Jakarta Post
\nvisited her house in Mangge, Magetan, in East Java. Her eyes were
\nempty.<\/p>\n
\"I don't know what to say,\" she said, breaking the silence.<\/p>\n
The frail woman's grand-daughter, Sundarti, 24, has been found
\nguilty in Singapore for killing both her female employer and the
\nemployer's daughter earlier this year.<\/p>\n
Despite Sundarti consistently denying the offense, the
\nSingapore Supreme Court found her guilty on Friday and sentenced
\nher to life in jail.<\/p>\n
However, Sundarti's family in Magetan still don't believe that
\nSundarti, a graduate of junior high school, killed her two
\nemployers. \"If she committed the murders, she must have had a
\nvery good reason for it,\" said Suparto, 67, Sundarti's
\ngrandfather, who said he knew Sundarti well.<\/p>\n
Sundarti's family in Megetan is poor. Minus her father, who
\ndied in 2001, The family lives together in an 8 by 10 meter house
\nmade from wood and bamboo.<\/p>\n
The house is inhabited by Suparto, Sujinah, Sundarti's mother,
\nBinarti, and her younger sister, Selvi Prihatin.<\/p>\n
Sundarti was the second person in the family after her father,
\nthat they could count on for extra income.<\/p>\n
The family's poverty pushed Sundarti to find a good job to
\nhelp meet the family's needs. In 1999, she decided to work in
\nSingapore.<\/p>\n
Her work in the island state for the next two years helped
\nfinance her sister's schooling until senior high school. After
\nthe death of her father in 2001, she returned to Singapore in
\n2002.<\/p>\n
Nothing happened until last year, when the family heard a
\nnewspaper report that Sundarti was being prosecuted for killing
\nher employers. Sundarti's mother, Binarti, went to Singapore to
\ncheck whether the report was credible. Her trip was financed by
\nthe Indonesian Embassy in Singapore.<\/p>\n
The report was later confirmed but Binarti failed to meet
\nSundarti in Singapore, although she did not say why.<\/p>\n
Binarti returned to Indonesia and the family waited with
\napprehension for a year, knowing Sundarti was charged with
\nmurder, with a maximum death sentence. Earlier, the prosecutor
\ncalled for the court to sentence her to death.<\/p>\n
The family was relieved after Sundarti was \"merely\" sentenced
\nto life.<\/p>\n
Commenting on the trial, Sri Wahyuningsih, an activist with
\nthe Women's Crisis Center, said Sundari's case was a blatant
\nexample of how the government had failed to fight for the
\ninterests of Indonesian workers overseas. \"The government did not
\nput pressure on the court to shed light on the cause of murder,
\nor whether the murder was actually committed by Sundarti,\" she
\nsaid on Thursday. The government was also negligent in other
\ncases, she said.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/sundarti-not-guilty-says-family-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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