Trial ends, kidnappers get light sentences

Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post, Tangerang

The Tangerang District Court sentenced on Tuesday defendant Sarwoto Benu, a 36-year-old resident of Semarang, to 15 months imprisonment for masterminding and orchestrating the kidnapping of eight-year-old Muhamad Hegel Muthahari from his school in Serpong, Tangerang, last July.

The same court also handed down a one-year prison term to Taher Lestaluhu, M. Soleh Ohorela, Doni Wibisono and Jantra alias Abah -- and an eight-month prison term to Nurulhuda Lestaluhu, Taher's wife, who assisted in the kidnapping.

The sentences were equal to the prosecutors' demand.

Sarwoto did not say whether or not he would appeal so the judges gave him another week to think over it. Other defendants accepted the verdicts.

Nurulhuda will walk free from Tangerang Women's Penitentiary in several weeks because she had been arrested last August.

In her primary indictment, prosecutor Riama Sihite charged the defendants with violating Article 330 of the Criminal Code, the removal by force of a minor from his or her parents or legal guardian with violence or the threat of violence. The article carries a maximum sentence of nine years imprisonment.

However, presiding judge Taryono said in his verdict that the defendants were proven guilty of violating Article 331 of the Criminal Code, by removing and concealing a minor from his or her parents or legal guardian. The article carries a maximum sentence of seven years.

Nurulhuda was found guilty of assisting in the kidnapping and was sentenced to eight months in prison.

The court also considered several mitigating factors, including the fact that the defendants expressed regret for their wrongdoing, were honest in giving their testimony, have no previous conviction and treated the victim well.

The judges said that Sarwoto had ordered his four accomplices to kidnap Hegel from school on July 29, 2003, while he was waiting for his mother.

They later demanded Rp 4 billion (US$470,588) in ransom from the victim's father Meirizal Zulkarnaen, who only managed to provide Rp 20 million through a bank transfer to the defendants.

The Serpong Police, who teamed up with the Penjaringan Police, tracked down the kidnappers and arrested one of them guarding Hegel at Hotel Horison in Ancol, North Jakarta, on Aug. 7, 2003.

Taher was arrested later in Ambon, Maluku, while other defendants were apprehended in separate places in Jakarta. They told the police that they kidnapped the boy to force his father to pay the Rp 4.5 billion he owed to 150 customers in his gold saving business.