Public Prosecutor Rejects Defense Of 2 Police Defendants Of Unlawful Killing, Still Requests Judge Sentence 6 Years In Prison

Photo via Antara

JAKARTA - The public prosecutor (JPU) has rejected the defense of two police officers in the case of unlawful killing that killed four FPI members during a trial at the South Jakarta District Court.

Prosecutor Donny Mahendra Sany said that while reading the response to the defendant's defense (replic), the legal counsel's argument was wrong because it ignored the facts that had been revealed at trial.

Therefore, the prosecutor said that his party remained with its demands which asked the panel of judges to sentence two defendants, namely Police Brigadier One (Briptu) Fikri Ramadhan and Police Inspector Two (Ipda) Mohammad Yusmin Ohorella, to 6 years in prison.

"After hearing the defendant's defense, we rejected it in its entirety, so we stayed with the charges and asked the panel of judges. We ask for a fair decision," said prosecutor Donny reading out the summary conclusions for the two defendants, Friday, March 4, quoted from Antara.

Chief Justice Muhammad Arif Nuryanta also asked for a legal advisor's response.

Coordinator of the Legal Advisory Team, Henry Yosodiningrat, said that his party had not submitted a response to the prosecutor's replik (duplik) and asked the panel of judges to immediately decide on the case.

"Thank you, Your Honor, thank you, Brother Public Prosecutor. We have the same attitude. We remain in defense. We ask the panel of judges to make a decision," said Henry in his response on behalf of the two defendants.

The panel of judges then scheduled a hearing for the verdict to be held in the next two weeks.

"It's good that the clock can start in the morning, if it takes a long time, take a Friday prayer break and continue. Same as the previous case (the case of Brigadier Fikri, ed.), the case on behalf of Yusmin Ohorella was postponed to Friday 18 March 2022 at 9:00 am," Arif told the public prosecutor and legal counsel.

The Public Prosecutor at the trial last month demanded that Brigadier Fikri and Ipda Yusmin be jailed for 6 years because both of them violated Article 338 of the Criminal Code in conjunction with Article 55 paragraph (1) 1 of Law Number 1 of 1946 concerning the Criminal Code.

However, the legal advisor in his plea on Friday (25/2) stated that the two defendants were not guilty because the criminal elements in the prosecutor's indictment were not proven.

The legal adviser also said that the shooting incident of four FPI members in a police car on December 7, 2020 occurred because the defendant Brigadier M. Fikri was trying to defend himself.

Meanwhile, Ipda Yusmin, who was in charge of driving the car at the time of the incident, only warned his colleague to be careful. The lawyer at his plea said the warning given by Ipda Yusmin to his colleague was not an order to shoot FPI members.

The four FPI members who died in the car, namely Muhammad Reza (20), Ahmad Sofyan alias Ambon (26 years), Faiz Ahmad Syukur (22), and Muhammad Suci Khadavi (21).