5-month prison term sought for sandal thief
Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post, Tangerang
A prosecutor demanded on Thursday that the Tangerang District court sentence a worker to five months' imprisonment for stealing a pair of damaged sandals from PT Osaga's factory warehouse where he worked last September.
Prosecutor Misbah said the defendant, Hamdani, 25, a resident of Kosambi Bedeng village of Sepatan district in Tangerang, who worked for the slipper-producing company on Jl. Raya Mauk 23, Jatiuwung district, was proved to have stolen the sample pair of sandals from the factory warehouse on Sept. 4.
According to Misbah, Hamdani stole the sandals from the warehouse and was caught wearing them by factory security officer TB Sulandi at the factory's musholla (small mosque).
The prosecutor said the defendant's act had caused a loss of Rp 25,000 (US$2.5) to the company and he was therefore charged with violating article 362 of the Criminal Code on theft. The Article carries a maximum punishment of a 7-year jail term.
However, Hamdani denied all the prosecution's charges, saying that to steal the company's belongings he would have had to take company items out of the factory area.
"It was not a sample pair of sandals, but reject ones -- on account of their damaged condition -- which have often been used by workers, including factory security officers, for taking ritual ablutions. I was only using them for the same purpose like the others and was intending to return them," he said.
Hamdani, who worked in the reject product section of the factory said such reject pairs of sandals were usually disposed of as factory waste and therefore he had felt he could use them, as many other workers had done.
Hundreds of his colleagues from the Karya Utama Labor Federation (FSKU) protested at the trial and asked the court to drop the case. But the panel of judges turned a deaf ear to the demand and continued the trial.
Presiding judge Suprapto postponed the session until next Thursday when the defense was due to present its case.