Indonesians riled after top cop escapes death penalty for murder of bodyguard, but activists say he has ‘right to live’
- General Ferdy Sambo had been sentenced to death in February for killing his aide and trying to cover it up with a fake shoot-out involving another officer
- Amid anger over the Supreme Court’s decision, questions have also been raised over the transparency of Indonesia’s legal process and a lack of accountability in the police force
Indonesia’s top court on Tuesday commuted the death sentence of a police official who killed his aide, a decision that has triggered disbelief and raised questions in the country about the transparency of the legal process.
Ferdy Sambo, a former two-star general and head of Indonesia’s internal affairs department, was found guilty of premeditated murder after his bodyguard, 27-year-old Brigadier Nofriansyah Yosua Hutabarat, was shot dead at Sambo’s Jakarta home in July last year.
The case gripped the nation, and its ensuing trial was widely seen as a test of police accountability.
Sambo received the maximum sentence in February, a ruling widely viewed as a sign of justice for Hutabarat and his family. But the Supreme Court’s decision on Tuesday to commute Sambo’s sentence to life in prison on appeal led many people to express their disappointment on social media.
Berlian Simarmata, a lecturer in criminal law at Santo Thomas Catholic University in Medan, said while the decision was not what people wanted to hear, it was “still within the corridor of the law” and under the authority of the Supreme Court.
