Soldier gets 10 years for killing spree

Nani Afrida, The Jakarta Post/Banda Aceh

A middle-ranking Navy officer, who shot dead four Army soldiers here in August and left another one critically wounded, has been jailed for 10 years and dishonorably discharged from the Navy, a military spokesman said on Thursday.

A military court in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam handed down the verdict for First Lt. Frederick Simorangkir two weeks ago, said Col. Sidiq Fahmi who heads the law enforcement division at the Banda Aceh military tribunal.

"The harshest punishment for any soldier is dismissal," Sidiq claimed.

Military prosecutors had sought 15 years for Simorangkir who was found guilty for the killing spree that took place on Aug. 24, 2004.

Sidiq refused to say when the court decision was issued for the defendant. The press missed covering his trial as the military tribunal apparently did not want them to know about it, for reasons that remain unclear.

Sidiq said the convicted soldier has been flown to Surabaya, East Java, to serve his jail term.

Lt. Col. Asep Sapari, a Aceh military spokesman, had once said that the shooter was probably suffering from severe depression as a consequence of his military service in the troubled province.

However, military prosecutor Capt. Bambang Indrawan dismissed this claim.

The defendant sprayed bullets into his colleagues while under the influence of drugs, Bambang said, reading the indictment.

The prosecutor told the court that the incident began when Simorangkir and other military personnel got together in a house near the Neusu Jaya military base in Banda Aceh.

The get-together was hosted by First. Lt. Dedi Hermawan as a reunion between seven soldiers, including Dedi and Simorangkir.

While his friends were busy inhaling crystal methamphetamine (shabu-shabu), Simorangkir went into another room of the house, "appearing crazed and acting very weird", according to his friend.

His friends failed to calm him down. Dedi then lost patience with Simorangkir and told him to return to his barracks. Simorangkir refused and a quarrel started.

Suddenly, Simorangkir picked up his gun and shot at everyone in the house, including Dedi. Four died instantly, but another, Chief Pvt. Wawan, escaped.

Simorangkir had been assigned to Aceh for 11 months, joining other Navy and Army personnel in suppressing separatist rebels.

Another source at a military hospital in Banda Aceh said the shooter probably suffered from malaria, that led to depression.

The shooting spree was similar to one in the 1990s where a middle-ranking Army officer also shot dead several fellow officers and wounded others in the Timika town of Papua province. Malaria was also blamed for driving the officer to shoot his colleagues.