Bekasi rape case lawyers and prosecutors appeal

Bekasi rape case lawyers and prosecutors appeal

JAKARTA (JP): Both the defense lawyers and prosecutors in the case of a Bekasi gang rape and robbery are appealing the verdict handed down last week by the Bekasi District Court.

The 12 defense lawyers said the sentences that the 11 defendants received, which ranged from between five and 14 years, are not fair.

"They are not guilty and should be acquitted of all charges," Petrus Bala Patyona, one of the defense lawyers, told The Jakarta Post Thursday.

The prosecution, on the other hand, said the defendants deserved harsher punishment for their "uncivilized conduct".

Petrus said the defense appeal will soon be submitted to the West Java High Court in Bandung.

The defendants, aged between 17 and 23, were found guilty of raping the wife and two daughters of a Bekasi farmer last July.

Jewelry was also stolen from the house of Acan, a farmer from Cimatis village, Bekasi, 30 kilometers southeast of the capital.

Petrus said one reason he is appealing is because five of the 11 defendants did not know each other when the police arrested them. "How could they conspire to commit a robbery and a gang rape?" he asked.

He also said he had some photographs of the defendants indicating that they had been tortured by police while they were under investigation.

Prosecutor Novimar Ali told the Post yesterday that she and her fellow prosecutors were not satisfied with the sentences handed down by the court.

"We want them to get between 12 and 16 years imprisonment for the offenses," Novimar said.

She said their objection mainly concerns the three defendants who were sentenced to five years in jail. The court said the three were involved in the robbery, not the rape.

Novimar said the prosecutors would submit their appeal next week. "This is in accordance with the law which states that an appeal should be submitted within 14 days after the verdict." (03)