Teenager gets suspended sentence

Teenager gets suspended sentence

Theresia Sufa, Bogor

Atang Ombak, 16, the last person to be tried in the case of a
protest-turned-riot in the village of Bojong in Bogor, was given
a three-month suspended sentence by the Cibinong District Court
on Tuesday.

Judge Edison Muhamad said that because the 16-year-old
defendant was still a junior high school student and had no prior
criminal record, Atang would only serve time in jail if he
committed another crime.

The lawyer representing the teenager, Leonard Sitompul, said
he was disappointed by the verdict and maintained that his client
was innocent.

Atang's verdict brought a close to the legal proceedings of
the 18 Bojong residents on trial for causing Rp 8 billion
(US$865,000) in damages to the dump's facilities. The 18 were
part of a larger number of villagers who on Nov. 22 of last year
protested the operations of the dump, which they said would
detrimentally impact on their village.

Earlier on Feb. 28, the 17 other defendants received sentences
ranging from a four-month suspended sentence, handed out to
another teenager still in school, to jail terms of up to eight
months. As of yesterday, 10 of the 18 villagers, including Atang,
remained free men.

All 18 were found guilty of causing collective damage to
property, which violates Article 170 of the Criminal Code and is
punishable by a maximum prison sentence of five and a-half years.

The Bojong facility, which has the capacity to absorb one
third of Jakarta's 6,200 tons of daily waste, is currently not in
operation because of strong local opposition to the dump.

Last December, two police officers were found guilty of
causing serious injuries to several of the protesting residents,
while 22 other police officers, including eight members of the
Mobile Brigade unit, were found guilty of using unnecessary force
to contain the riot.