Death sentence asked for deranged soldier
JAKARTA (JP): Military prosecutors demanded yesterday a death sentence for a trigger-happy officer who shot 26 people in a shooting spree at the Timika airport last year.
Prosecutor Col. Balukia at the Jayapura Military Court also demanded that the soldier, identified only as Second Lt. San, 37, be sacked and stripped of all his rights as a member of the Armed Forces (ABRI). The prosecution also demanded the court revoke any medals and awards he had received for his service with the Army's Special Force Kopassus.
San also has to pay for the court expenses of Rp 5,000 (approximately US$2), Antara reported.
Evidence in the dossiers included the results of 26 doctors' examinations on the shooting victims, while a SS-1 machine gun, 52 bullet shells of 5.56 mm caliber, three magazines and an anti- bullet vest were confiscated.
The prosecution said the officer had been proven guilty of killing 16 people, both fellow ABRI officers and civilians, and injuring ten others.
Balukia dismissed a previous claim by military top brass that the officer was in a poor mental state due to heavy stress or disease, because he had taken the time to change the gun's magazine after the first round of bullets were fired.
Balukia also said the defendant had taken good aim when he opened fire.
The defendant fainted minutes before Balukia finished reading the sentence demand. The court session was briefly adjourned but resumed after the defendant was taken outside the courtroom.
The defendant's team of lawyers led by Maj. Cholid Ashari and Capt. Santoso requested time to prepare their response to the demand.
The shooting incident took place in mid-April last year. Previous reports said San became involved in a dispute with a fellow officer. The lieutenant suddenly picked up a machine gun and sprayed the soldiers and civilian workers at the Timika airport hangar with bullets.
Among the officers killed in the shooting spree were Lt. Col. Adel Gusti Mego, chief of the local detachment of the Army Special Force, and Capt. Sujatmiko of the Army Strategic Reserves Command. A foreign helicopter pilot of PT Airfast Indonesia, Vittle Michael Francis of New Zealand, also died in the incident.
The Armed Forces previously said San was temporarily deranged because of a bout of malaria. The military later said he was suffering a mental disorder.
Armed Forces Chief of Staff R. Hartono said last year it was common for people stationed in places like East Timor and Irian Jaya to be prone to shooting sprees. (swe)