Cop killer gets 16 years

Cop killer gets 16 years

JAKARTA (JP): A 23-year-old student of the Jakarta-based
Jayabaya University was sentenced to 16 years in jail yesterday
by the East Jakarta district court for his role in the brutal
murder of Police Sgt. Bambang Sumarno.

"Evidence and witnesses proved conclusively that defendant
Iman Alamin took part in the murder and later kept the victim's
gun as well as its ammunition," presiding judge I Gede Ketut
Sukarata said while reading his verdict.

The convicted man closed his eyes and tried to remain calm
while the judge announced the sentence.

Prosecutor B. Gultom had earlier demanded the court sentence
Alamin, whom the he labeled the mastermind of the killing, to 18
years.

The court, however, found that Alamin did not mastermind the
brutal slaying which occurred at an empty house in the Kayu Putih
area. The house belongs to Alamin's parents.

But all evidence, including the lethal 22-centimeter-long
knife and the victim's pistol, was found at Alamin's residence.

The judges said that Alamin had broken the law by housing
unlicensed guns and blades.

The defendant's lawyer, Sawir Achmad, told the court that he
will appeal to a higher court.

"Alamin knew nothing about the killing. He himself was shocked
when he returned to the living room and found the sergeant dead,"
Sawir told reporters on the courthouse steps.

Prosecutor Gultom had earlier told the court that Alamin
ordered his two cronies, Boy Herowantana and Arnold Mamusung,
both currently facing separate trials in the same case, to drug
and then kill the victim in the wee hours of Aug. 26, 1993.

According to the prosecutor, Alamin masterminded the killing
because he wanted to posses the sergeant's gun.

Alamin initially asked the police to check his house. He told
sergeant Bambang Sumarno that the house had been frequently
burglarized.

During the five-month trial, Alamin had repeatedly denied his
written testimony that he masterminded the killing, saying that
dozens of police officers extracted the confession from him by
torture.

According to Alamin's version, Bambang visited the house and
spoke with him about the security problem, a discussion which
later escalated into a quarrel.

Alamin said that he never asked his two colleagues to seize
the policeman's gun, much less kill the man.

Meanwhile, two friends of Alamin, who were both highly
intoxicated, entered the living room, brawled with Bambang and
stabbed the police officer to death while Alamin was out of the
house buying cigarettes.

Afterwards, the three young thugs cleaned the living room,
burned the policeman's body and dumped it in a rubber plantation
in Cianjur, West Java.

"I need to take some time to think about this," Alamin told
the court when he was asked whether he objected to the verdict.
(09)