Prosecutors demand 20 year for student
Theresia Sufa, The Jakarta Post, Bogor
Prosecutors are demanding a 20-year prison term for Trisakti University student Ronald Johanes Posma Aroean, 24, for the murder of his pregnant girlfriend Amanda Devina, 22, last July.
In a court hearing presided over by Judge Andi Samsan Nganro on Tuesday, prosecutors said the defendant was guilty of premeditated murder and of concealing evidence by moving the body.
"The defendant took two lives, including that of the five- month-old fetus in the victim's womb, which was his child," prosecutor Isa Gasing said.
Ronald has been charged under Article 340 of the Criminal Code, which carries a maximum sentence of death.
Prosecutors said that other compounding factors were that the defendant had shattered the hopes of Amanda's parents to see their daughter graduate from engineering school and that his actions had traumatized the victim's only sister and was an insult to humanity.
Amanda's father Sapto Hartoyo, who attended Tuesday's hearing, said that a 20-year jail term would be too lenient.
"He should get the maximum punishment allowed, the death sentence," said Sapto. "The prosecution has proven that he planned the murder."
The trial was adjourned until Feb. 15, when the court will hear the defendant's defense.
Ronald and Amanda, also a Trisakti University student, got into a heated argument over her pregnancy on July 28.
The defendant called her at 10 a.m., requesting that she meet him at an address on Jl. Gatot Subroto, South Jakarta. Amanda drove to the meeting point in her Nissan Terano.
From there, Ronald took over the wheel and drove to his house in the Jatijajar housing complex, Cimanggis district in Depok.
Amanda wanted Ronald to tell his parents about her pregnancy, but Ronald refused. He said his father, who lives in Yogyakarta, was still recuperating from surgery at the time.
Ronald has confessed to strangling Amanda and smothering her with a pillow after they argued.
At about 5:30 p.m., Ronald allegedly took Amanda's body in the Terano with the intention of ditching it at Puncak Pass.
Fearing he would be seen, Ronald proceeded to Bandung, West Java, and reportedly left the car with Amanda's body in the back seat with a note addressed to her father reading: "Watch your back, Sapto. You're next" on the side of Jl. Soekarno-Hatta in Leuwi Panjang.
The defendant then walked to Leuwi Panjang bus terminal and took a bus to Kampung Rambutan bus terminal in East Jakarta. From there he took a taxi home.
Residents smelled the decomposing body three days later and reported the parked car to the police.