Mistress sent to jail for having rival murdered
JAKARTA (JP): Cecilia Suwati, 42, a beautician and mistress of a high-ranking official of the Customs and Excise Office, was sentenced to 16 years in jail yesterday for masterminding the killing of the official's wife on June 15 of last year.
Presiding Judge T. Sihite of the South Jakarta District Court said that the defendant was guilty of arranging the assassination of Sri Sukarsih.
Prosecutor's Riemenda Jamin Ginting earlier said in her charges that Cecilia had violated Article 304 and section one of Article 55 of the Criminal Code Procedures dealing with capital murder.
According to Sihite, by proving that the defendant had violated the two primary articles, the court did not have to prove the other minor charges against her.
Sihite said that a number of factors contributed to Cecilia's harsh sentence. He cited the fact that Cecilia, a married woman with two children (from two previous husbands), was malicious enough to kill her rival, who was also a married woman and a mother, in order to satisfy her lust.
The presiding judge said that Cecilia failed to maintain her husband's socially respected position as a teacher and her own pride as a woman. He added that her twisted testimony was included as one of the factors against her.
Sihite explained that such factors made the board of the judges agree to put aside Cecilia's defense statement, which stated that she had been mistreated by security officers during the preliminary questioning.
The judges also overlooked Cecilia's previous statement that she regretted her wrongdoings and pledged not to perform a similar mistake in the future. They argued that the evidence which she presented to the court was in conflict with this pledge.
During an interview with The Jakarta Post after the court session, Prosecutor Riemenda admitted that the verdict was in agreement with her womanly judgment towards the case.
However, Riemenda refused to comment as to whether the verdict was fair, given that she had demanded that Cecilia should be sentenced to 20 years in jail.
According to Sihite, the murder was planned in February 1993 in Surakarta, Central Java, a town where Cecilia worked as a beautician at the "Maya" beauty parlor.
Cecilia and Haryanto often met at various hotels in Surakarta. When their clandestine love affair blossomed into a more serious relationship, they agreed to murder Sri Sukarsih to enable them to marry, said the judge.
Cecilia then asked police officer Supardi to help with their plan.
Supardi sent two soothsayers to have Sri Sukarsih eliminated, but the housewife turned out to be invulnerable to their lethal black magic, said the judge.
After this initial failure, Cecilia instructed Supardi to get her some hired assassins, and quick. Supardi agreed to the scheme when she promised a contract of Rp 10 million ($4,633) for the hit, said Sihite.
Supardi next contacted Joko Sudiatmoko and Jarot to carry out the murder, said the judge.
The two murderers visited Haryanto's residence on Jl. Kalibata Utara IV, South Jakarta, on June 15, posing as Haryanto's guests. They killed Sukarsih at 10:30 p.m. that day by breaking her neck and then placed her body in the bathtub.
Joko and Haryanto was sentenced to 16 years in prison by the South Jakarta District Court while the fourth suspect in the case, Jarot, remains at large.
Haryanto said on Monday that he will appeal to a higher court.
Cecilia looked very composed during the court session, She did not hide her face like other female defendants, who often keep their heads down as low as possible in a courtroom. The Kalimantan woman spoke with a clear voice when stating that she will appeal to the Jakarta High Court. (03)