An Indonesian court on Thursday sentenced a police officer to 18 months in prison after a deadly stampede in a stadium but acquitted two other local police officials, triggering the anger of the families of the victims.
The giant stampede caused by tear gas fire from the police left 135 dead in October 2022 after a football match in Malang, in the east of the island of Java, making it the one of the worst disasters in the history of sport.
Several relatives of victims burst into tears hearing the verdicts on the last day of the trial, and felt that justice had not been done.
The court "
sentences the defendant, Hasdarmawan, to a year and a half in prison
" for negligence, said Abu Achmad Sidqi Amsya, the senior judge of the court in Surabaya, a city in East Java.
Hasdarmawan, who like many Indonesians goes only by name, was the commander of a police mobile squad in East Java.
“
The defendant failed to foresee a situation which was in fact quite easily foreseeable.
There was a possibility of not firing (tear gas) to respond to the violence of the supporters
, ”said the judge.
The sentence represents half of what the prosecution had requested, i.e. three years in prison.
Hasdarmawan denied having asked his subordinates to fire tear gas at the supporters.
Two other Malang police officials, Bambang Sidik Achmadi and Wahyu Setyo Pranoto, were acquitted on Thursday.
'No Justice'
Several families of victims present in court expressed their anger after the verdict.
“
The victims are not satisfied with the verdict.
There has been no justice for them
,” Imam Hidayat, a lawyer representing several families, told AFP.
"
There were so many inconsistencies that we might as well have declared them all not guilty
."
“
I was hoping they would receive a just sentence... I feel like justice has been ripped to pieces
Isatus Sa'adah, who lost his 16-year-old brother in the disaster, told reporters.
Last week, Abdul Haris, head of the match organizing committee, was sentenced to 18 months in prison and match security officer Suko Sutrisno was sentenced to one year in prison.
The former director of the company in charge of managing Indonesia's premier football league is still under investigation.
On October 1, 2022, after a match between rival clubs Arema FC and Persebaya Surabaya at the Kanjuruhan Stadium in Malang, fans flooded the pitch.
The police responded by firing tear gas into the crowded stands of the stadium and triggered a large crowd movement that left 135 dead, including more than 40 children.
Hundreds of panicked onlookers had rushed towards narrow exit doors, sparking a deadly stampede that suffocated or crushed many victims.
The police described the invasion of the field by the supporters as a riot and deplored the death of two policemen.
But survivors of the disaster have denounced the disproportionate use of force by the police.
President Joko Widodo has ordered an investigation and promised to demolish the Kanjuruhan stadium to rebuild it to International Football Federation (Fifa) safety standards.
But the recommendation during a preliminary investigation of the resignation of the head of the national football federation as well as its management committee has not been followed up.
The national commission for human rights had attributed in a report the deaths to the muscular response of the police and tear gas.
The executive director of Amnesty International Indonesia deplored that the authorities have "
again failed to bring justice to the victims of excessive use of force in Indonesia
".
National football competitions had been suspended after the tragedy.
Premier League matches have resumed as the country is due to host the Under-20 World Cup in May-June.
