Verdict Hearing for Two Defendants in Bank Manager Kidnap-Murder Case Postponed to 20 July

The East Jakarta District Court has postponed the verdict hearing for two defendants in the kidnapping and murder case of bank manager Ilham Pradipta. The reason for the delay is that the ruling is not yet ready. The two defendants, Eka Wahyu Hidayatullah and Erasmus, will now face their verdict on Monday, 20 July 2026. Presiding judge Juandra initially inquired about the defendants’ health, to which both replied they were in good condition. Judge Juandra then explained that the case files were extensive, meaning the draft verdict was not yet complete. He also noted the plan to read the verdict simultaneously with the case against the other intellectual actors. ‘The verdict is not ready, so we will postpone the reading together with the other case. We will read them simultaneously. All the files we hold will be read together,’ Judge Juandra stated in the courtroom on Thursday (16/7/2026). The verdicts for Eka and Eras are planned to be read alongside those for three intellectual actors in the case: Candy alias Ken, Dwi Hartono, and Antonius Aditya. ‘The verdict is postponed to Monday, 20 July 2026, scheduled for 2 p.m. Western Indonesia Time,’ the judge said. Following the session, Erasmus’s legal counsel, Adrianus Agal, stated that they respected the judge’s decision to postpone the hearing for the synchronisation of the verdicts. However, he reiterated the trial fact that his client was not involved in the murder. ‘According to the trial facts, our client, Eras, only carried out the forced pick-up. The trial facts clearly show that the perpetrators of the murder were Nasir and Joko (wanted suspects),’ Adrianus said. He expressed hope that the judge would sentence his client under the articles for kidnapping or deprivation of liberty, not murder as demanded by the public prosecutor. Similarly, Eka Wahyu’s legal counsel, Dino, argued that the prosecutor had erred in applying the murder charge against his client. He stated that Eka was merely an online driver hired offline by a person named Boma, who turned out to be a surveillance operative prepared by the intellectual actors. ‘Our client was just in the wrong place at the wrong time,’ Dino said. Previously, the defendants underwent their sentencing hearing on Monday (22/6). Eka Wahyu was sentenced to 4 years in prison, while Erasmus was sentenced to 13 years. In addition to the prison terms, prosecutors demanded Eka Wahyu pay restitution of IDR 40.6 million and Erasmus pay IDR 100 million, to be paid within 30 days of the verdict becoming legally binding.