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Indonesian Banana Thieves ‘Mentally Challenged,’ Prosecutors Agree
January 07, 2012

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blightyboy
1:09pm Jan 8, 2012

I guess the police, by nature, would be very sensitive to bananas being stolen.

blightyboy
1:07pm Jan 8, 2012

"Meanwhile, in Banyumas, Central Java, the local branch of the Muhammadiyah Students Association (IMM) launched a drive that aimed to gather 1,000 bananas for Kuatno". Not really very original...??????

blightyboy
1:05pm Jan 8, 2012

DD - How right you are, but then again they are actually all ‘Mentally Challenged’.

DrDez
4:59pm Jan 7, 2012

could start a precedent for govt/administration corruption suspects :)


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Prosecutors in Cilacap, Central Java, said two people suspected of stealing bananas in a controversial case are mentally challenged and should not face charges.

Kuatno and Topan were charged with stealing the fruits in a case that drew further criticism of Indonesia’s police force, which recently received international coverage after a teenager was convicted of stealing a pair of sandals from a police officer in Central Sulawesi.

“Psychiatrists Reni Kusu-mawardani and Riski Praptikasari from Cilacap General Hospital ran tests on the two on Thursday and concluded that they are mentally challenged,” Cilacap chief prosecutor Sulijati said on Friday.

Sulijati admitted that her office authorized the tests following widespread media reports that one of the suspects, Kuatno, was mentally challenged.

Details of the psychiatrists’ report have not been made public, but Sulijati said she had passed on the findings to the Central Java prosecutor’s office and the Attorney General’s Office. She added that she had not received the case file from the Cilacap Police.

“We have not pressed charges against the two,” she said.

Indonesia’s Criminal Code states that people who are proven to be mentally challenged cannot be held responsible for their actions.

Sulijati said that if the police passed on the case files to her office, she would move to end the prosecution.

Kuatno’s lawyer, Wiwin Taswin, welcomed the prosecutors’ statements and called on the police to respect the findings and drop the case.

Meanwhile, in Banyumas, Central Java, the local branch of the Muhammadiyah Students Association (IMM) launched a drive that aimed to gather 1,000 bananas for Kuatno.

The initiative in part reflects the public’s response to the sandal case, after which people donated sandals en masse to mock the policeman who took a juvenile to court for stealing his sandals.

Irvan Faturrahman of the IMM said the group wanted to highlight the police’s heavy-handed treatment of petty crimes.

“The police were extremely quick to arrest Kuatno for stealing 15 bananas,” he said. “Meanwhile, there remain massive corruption cases where police have still not named any suspects.

“We will take the bananas we collect to the police to bail out Kuatno.”

Antara