This is my third attempt writing this post. Each time, I put my mind on these petty situations, I get upset, but the intellect in me keeps telling me that the couple is guilty.

Criminal Code 363 carries a maximum of up to 7 years with no minimum period being quantified. I wonder what would happen if a Judge sentenced the guilty persons for one day, spent in court.

Shouldn't the punishment fit the crime?

Of course people cannot go around stealing, but lets get real here, we are talking about a few bananas. They are being held in a detention centre, probably under horrendous conditions, and are going to be tried in a court. It will probably end up costing the country more than this couple will ever have for the rest of their lives. Sanity says they should have had their wrists slapped and sent home. Not forgetting that it comes on top of a long list of equally stupid prosecutions. And yes, people with money are getting away with murder. Its just completely bloody stupid.

First of all, I'd like to say that having read the news, the couple is clearly guilty. Poverty has always been used as an excuse to break laws in this country and this could not go on. So lets call a monkey a monkey and call the couple thieves.

Having said that, this is, I think, where rational law comes in. Sure, there's a law against stealing. Sure what they did was wrong. The point, however, was WHY they did it.

They were desperate. They needed food. They wanted to sell those bananas (not to eat them, mind you. Bananas are probably a luxury they can't afford) so that they can buy a meal. A rational law would take all this as mitigating circumstances. A rational law would also then examine the character of the couple. Would they steal, for instance, if they were not desperate? Have the couple engaged in criminal activity before? When they were NOT desperate?

A rational law would then exact a punishment (they DID break the law), but be gentle and forgiving...in this case. Perhaps the court would mandate the couple to issue a formal apology to the owner of the bananas. Perhaps the law would issue them a warning and put them under probation for...oh I don't know...six months. A rational would NOT threaten them with 7 years in jail for stealing a head of bananas to begin with.

And to think that Robert 'Bob' Tantular got only 5 years (!!!) for stealing trillions, while he is CLEARLY not poor, not desperate, and can afford any food he wishes. So Bob goes to jail for 5 years for stealing trillions of rupiah, while the couple is threatened with SEVEN years for stealing a head of bananas worth 7 thousand rupiah.

That is not rational law.

padt..........Have to agree with everything that you have said. I know from these pages and comments made that there are many Indonesians that care, unfortunately they seem a rare breed. So many are simply morality deficient hypocrites. The police, well there simply are not words to describe this species apart.

Shame on you the Police of Bojonegoro , you are a disgrace.