Student gets 20 years in jail for killing pregnant girlfriend

Theresia Sufa, The Jakarta Post, Bogor

The Cibinong District Court sentenced Ronald Johanes Posma Aroean, 24, to 20 years in prison on Tuesday for killing his pregnant girlfriend last year.

Presiding judge Andi Samsan Ngamro said Ronald, who was a student at Trisakti University in Jakarta at the time of the crime, was guilty of the murder of Amanda Devina. The victim, who was killed on July 28, 2004, was also a student at Trisakti University.

"The defendant murdered Amanda and her unborn baby. He also betrayed the woman by not accepting responsibility for the baby," Andi said.

The sentence was similar to the one sought by the prosecution.

Ronald was charged under Article 340 of the Criminal Code on murder, which carries a maximum sentence of death, and Article 181 of the Criminal Code on concealing evidence by moving a body.

Ronald murdered Amanda, 22, who was four months pregnant at the time, at his house in Depok, West Java.

He confessed to strangling Amanda and smothering her with a pillow after she asked him to marry her.

The convict then put Amanda's body in the back of her vehicle with the intention of dumping her along Puncak Pass.

Fearing he would be seen, Ronald proceeded to Bandung, West Java, and abandoned the car, with Amanda's body in the backseat, on the side of Jl. Soekarno-Hatta in Leuwi Panjang.

In an attempt to divert suspicion from himself, Ronald left a note in the car addressed to Amanda's father that read: "Watch your back, Sapto. You're next."

Ronald then took a bus to the Kampung Rambutan bus terminal in East Jakarta, and from there took a taxi home to Depok.

The convict's lawyer, Juniver Girsang, told the court they would appeal the sentence.

After he was sentenced, Ronald approached Amanda's family in the courtroom and attempted to apologize.

The victim's father, Sapto Hartoyo, dismissed the apology. "The sentence is too lenient ... there are no mitigating factors. The defendant is a cold-blooded murderer."

"Remember that you killed your own flesh and blood," he told Ronald.

Actress and women's activist Rieke Dyah Pitaloka, who attended the court session, said the court should have sentenced Ronald to death, or at least life in prison, "to make him learn his lesson".