Indonesia policeman jailed over football stadium crush

Surabaya, Indonesia (AFP):An Indonesian court jailed a policeman for 18 months on Thursday over negligence contributing to one of the worst stadium disasters in the history of football but victims’ families criticised the trial as two other officers walked free.

Last year’s crush in the city of Malang killed 135 people—including more than 40 children—after a 3-2 defeat for Arema FC by their fierce East Javan rivals Persebaya Surabaya.

When supporters invaded the pitch of the Kanjuruhan Stadium, police fired tear gas, causing a deadly stampede.

The man jailed on Thursday, Hasdarmawan—who like many Indonesians goes by one name—was a commander for East Java police’s mobile brigade unit.

“The defendant failed to predict a situation that was actually quite easy to anticipate. There was an option not to fire (the tear gas) to respond to the supporters’ violence,” presiding judge Abu Achmad Sidqi Amsya told the court in Surabaya, capital of East Java, as he handed down the sentence.

Hasdarmawan had previously denied ordering his subordinates to fire tear gas towards the supporters.

Wearing a white shirt and a face mask, the officer listened quietly as the judge delivered the sentence, which was shorter than the three years prosecutors had asked for.

He has seven days to file an appeal.

Moments later, Malang police officer Bambang Sidik Achmadi, also accused of ordering his subordinates to fire tear gas, was found not guilty by the court.

Judge Amsya said the charges had “not been proven”, and the defendant was free to go.

The court also found another Malang police officer Wahyu Setyo Pranoto not guilty.

Prosecutors had initially claimed Pranoto ignored FIFA’s regulation prohibiting the use of tear gas at a football match.