13-year prison term for sergeant's killers

JAKARTA (JP): The East Jakarta district court Saturday sentenced Arnold Mamusung and Boy Herowantana to 13 years imprisonment each for killing Police Sgt. Bambang Sumarno in August last year.

"What made your action unpardonable is that what you have done is very inhumane, and that the victim was on duty at the time of the murder," Presiding Judge Achmad Husin said, stressing that the defendants had committed the action consciously.

The judge took into consideration the defendants' good conduct during the trial and the facts they had not been jailed previously and are still young.

Both Arnold and Boy bent their heads as the presiding judge began to read the verdict.

The defendants sat upright only after the judge told them they would have to do so before the sentence was pronounced.

Prosecutor I Made A. Ardjana had previously demanded the court sentence Arnold, alias Nano, to a 17-year prison term and Boy to 18 years. Boy's offense was considered greater because he had taken the police officers' gun from him.

The sentences are three years lower than that passed down by the same court to Iman Alamin, who was tried separately, and sentenced to 16 years in jail for his role in the murder and the theft of the victim's gun along with its ammunition.

Last Aug. 26, Sgt. Bambang was killed by the three men in an empty house at Jl. Kayu Putih Tengah II-D No. 2, Central Jakarta. The house belongs to Alamin's parents.

According to the verdict, the three then took the sergeant's body to a rubber plantation in Cianjur, West Java, and set fire to it to conceal the deceased's identity.

The prosecutor said the defendants' motive for the killing was to seize Sgt. Bambang's gun, but the court exonerated the three from those charges because there was not enough evidence to support the assertion.

At the previous sessions, all the convicts denied written testimonies they made before the police saying that they had been beaten before the questioning to force their confessions. Police denied they tortured the defendants.

To support their torture claim, the three presented before the court pictures of their swollen faces published by a Jakarta- based newspaper.

After announcing the sentence, the presiding judge asked if the prosecutor or the defendants planned to appeal to the high court.

Both Boy's and Nano lawyer said they were still considering whether to appeal.

"I should consult with my client first before I make any decision on this matter," Boy's lawyer later told the Jakarta Post

Prosecutor Ardjana was also considering appealing the sentences, which he felt should have been harsher. (11)