One Year On, No Suspects Named in Case of Three Lombok Students Burned Alive

The investigation into the case of three students burned alive at an Islamic boarding school in Central Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara, is now being directed towards alleged criminal negligence. Central Lombok Police Criminal Investigation Unit Head AKP Punguan Hutahaean stated that the investigation is now focusing on the application of Article 474 of the Criminal Code (KUHP) following the results of the inquiry and witness statements. “After investigating the facts of the incident and based on the victims’ statements, the investigation is now directed towards Article 474 of the Criminal Code,” he said in Central Lombok on Wednesday (8/7/2026).

He explained that at the beginning of the inquiry, the case referred to alleged violations of Article 76C in conjunction with Article 80 of Law Number 35 of 2014 concerning Child Protection, and/or Article 466 paragraph (2) and paragraph (3) of Law Number 1 of 2023 concerning the Criminal Code. However, the results of the investigation and case review led investigators to suspect negligence in the supervision of student activities within the boarding school environment. Despite this, investigators have not yet named any suspects as the process is still ongoing to determine the party responsible for the alleged negligence.

Chairman of the Mataram Child Protection Agency (LPA) Joko Jumadi supports the investigators’ move to develop the case towards alleged criminal negligence. According to him, there needs to be a deeper examination of the causal relationship between the negligence and the fire incident. “If a child is suspected as the perpetrator, there is certainly a causality that caused the fire. However, whether there is a link to negligence on the part of the boarding school that led to this incident, that still needs to be investigated further,” he said.