Pedicab driver assaulters get 10 months

JAKARTA: The North Jakarta District Court sentenced four Koja subdistrict public order officers to 10 months in prison for assaulting a becak (pedicab) driver on July 3, 2003, who later died of severe injuries.

Presiding judge Mohammad Hata told the hearing on Wednesday that defendants Iwan Setiawan, Suherman, Ridwan Ciptadi and Suwandi were guilty of violating Articles 359 and 361 of the Criminal Code on assault resulting in death.

The Association of Jakarta Pedicabs and the Urban Poor Network protested the lenient sentence, saying that the assaulters should have been punished with the maximum of five years imprisonment.

"We will file an appeal," Rasdullah, a becak driver, was quoted as saying by Detikcom.

The victim, Abdul Acim, was passing by Diesel Hospital on Jl. Koja, when the patrolling public order officers caught him and forced him onto their truck, along with his becak. Abdul was beaten by the officers, one of whom later pushed him out of the speeding truck.

Abdul died on Aug. 2, 2003, without being hospitalized. He was buried in his hometown of Pabuaran, Subang, West Java. -- JP