UKI student receives five month jail term

JAKARTA (JP): Hundreds of student supporters heard the South Jakarta District Court sentence an Indonesian Christian University student on Friday to five months in jail for depriving a police officer of his freedom.

Presiding judge Syamsoeddin A.B. said Edward T.B. Karo-karo was found guilty, along with three friends, of depriving freedom to officer Suratman as charged by Article 333 (1) of the Criminal Code.

Syamsoeddin said the defendant was not guilty of kidnapping Suratman as charged under Article 328 of the Criminal Code.

The defendant was earlier charged under Article 328 and 333 (1), which carry a maximum punishment of 12 years in jail and eight years in jail respectively.

"The defendant remained silent and let his friends tie and blindfold Suratman before putting the victim into a taxi," Syamsoeddin said.

He said the panel of judges considered the defendant to have supported his friends' actions, during which the victim was taken to several places before being dumped by the side of a road.

The judges believed the defendant at first tried to help the victim from being mobbed during a student rally on Jl. Gatot Subroto on Nov. 27 last year.

"But willingness to save the victim should have been demonstrated by actions," Syamsoeddin said.

Wearing the university's blue jacket and a headband, Edward, who was accompanied by 10 lawyers from the Student Movement Lawyers Team, announced he would appeal the verdict.

Upon hearing the verdict, friends from the student group City Forum (Forkot) embraced the law school student.

The supporters repeated shouts of "Release Edward, release Edward," during the trial, which started at about 11 a.m., forced the judge at one point to knock his gavel to silence the students.

Edward will be released within the next seven days, as he has been detained since Dec. 8.

Prosecutor M. Purba was considering appealing the judge's decision.

Purba earlier asked the court to sentence Edward to three years in jail for depriving his client of freedom.

He said the defendant and three friends took Sgt. Maj. Suratman, who was taking photographs of the rally, to the UKI campus in Cawang, East Jakarta.

Two of the three friends were identified as Rudi Pahala Simatupang and Alex Situmeang. Rudy has been cleared in the case, while the other two students are still at large. (jun)