Pedicab driver assaulters get 10 months

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