Mistress sent to jail for having rival murdered

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)