2 Americans Sentenced To 3 Months In Prison In Bali Pecalang Persecution Case

Attorneys and two US citizens in the case of mistreatment of pecalang gave a statement to journalists/ANTARA/Rolandus Nampu

The panel of judges at the Denpasar District Court (PN), Bali, Thursday, sentenced two foreign nationals from the United States, Aabed Attia (27) and Zeyad Ahmad Attia (30), to three months in prison in cases of mistreatment of villa managers and pencalang or Balinese traditional village security officers.

The Denpasar District Court Panel of Judges found both of them guilty in the case of mistreatment of a pecalang, I Ketut Rai Arya Yasa (50) who was beaten with an iron rod until he was battered because he was reprimanded by playing music with a loud volume at the villa in the Seminyak area, Badung Regency, Bali.

The panel of judges led by I Putu Suyoga, in their ruling, stated that the defendants were legally and convincingly proven guilty of committing a criminal act of jointly committing violence as regulated and threatened with criminal penalties in Article 170 paragraph (2) of the 1st Criminal Code.

"The trial, sentenced the defendants Aabed Attia and Zeyad Ahmed Attia to three months in prison each, and determined the length of detention that the defendants had served was deducted entirely from the sentence imposed," said the panel of judges as reported by ANTARA, Thursday, July 18.

The verdict is the same as the demands of the Public Prosecutor (JPU) Imam Ramdhoni in his previous indictment, namely the sentence of three months in prison.

Regarding the decision, both the defendant through his legal advisor and the Public Prosecutor stated that he accepted the decision.

In their consideration, the panel of judges explained that the aggravating things were the defendant being carried away by emotions and disturbing the surrounding community. Meanwhile, mitigating things the defendants admitted their actions, were polite, sorry, honest, and cooperative in the trial and the defendant was beaten first by the victim.

When met after the trial, the defendants through their legal advisers Boby and Ida Bagus Sakti said that in this case there was already peace with the pecalang.

According to him, the incident, as revealed in the trial, was triggered by an incident, in which one of the defendants was beaten first by pecalang until bruises, which then sparked anger and fights.

"Our client and the pecalang party already have peace. However, the trigger for this problem is that one of the defendants was hit first until he was bruised and swollen in the head. Because he was angry, he was rewarded to cause a fight," said Sakti.

He also said the defendant had admitted at the trial that the chronology of the fight was true, but between them and Pecalang there had been a peace agreement and forgiven each other.

Even the cost of treating the victim has been borne by all of the two defendants. It's just that the manager of the villa did not want peace until this case entered the realm of law.

"Already forgiven each other, that's the story clear like that. Second, with the villa manager, he has no evidence whatsoever, just what he said. If you say it's torn, we don't really know whether it's not the post-mortem," he said.

Previously, the prosecutor's indictment explained that the two defendants committed the crime as a result of the incident which began with complaints related to the loud music sound from their villa where they lived in Gang Kubu, in the early hours of Monday (22/4) at around 03.00 WITA.

The noise disturbed the composure of local residents, which resulted in villa security guards being asked to coordinate with local pecalang, including victims to resolve the issue.

Satpam came to the Pecalang security post asking for help to reprimand residents who set the sound of music at that loud volume. The security guard and the victim then came to the villa. The victim then asked the perpetrators to reduce the sound of music volume because it disturbed the public and other tourists who were resting," said the prosecutor.

After talking to the perpetrator at the villa, the victim then left the location to return to the security post.

However, when the victim was about to leave the villa and head to the parking lot, he was suddenly ambushed by the two defendants. One of the defendants hit the victim repeatedly with his hand, while the other defendant used an iron rod to persecute the victim, hitting the right head and thigh.

The incident resulted in the victim suffering lacerations to the head, left cheek, and swelling right thigh.

The victim, who was seriously injured as a result of the attack, was finally rushed to the hospital by a security guard, while the perpetrator was reported to the police for further legal proceedings until the court process.