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.