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Old and Young: Detained, Charged and Sentenced for Minor Crimes
February 17, 2011

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devine
5:50pm Feb 17, 2011

Well everybody KNOWS that stealing is a crime. So therefore I personally believe that it should be prosecuted, even in minor cases. Stealing is stealing.

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Having said that the problem we face however is that those that STEAL BIG usually walk away or face small sentences and hardly ever is the stolen money confiscated. Seeing that it is just clear that there is NO JUSTICE here.

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Arief Johar Cahyadi Permana is not the only Indonesian facing jail time for what seems like a minor offense. Such cases have been reported frequently over the past two years.

• Friends and family of Carli Hamdani and Deni Muharram on Monday gathered outside the Bandung Prosecutor’s Office to protest prosecution demands for a one-and-a-half-year jail term for each defendant for allegedly stealing debris from a construction site. The pair are accused of reselling the debris for Rp 150,000 ($17). Family members allege judicial malfeasance in taking the case to court, as the debris has never been admitted as evidence.

• In December of last year, Anjol Hasil, 75, and Jamilu Nani, 80, stood trial in Gorontalo province for allegedly stealing six pieces of bamboo. The pair spent 20 days in detention, with prosecutors saying they could not prove the elderly couple had stolen the bamboo, but that they could prove they had vandalized a plantation.

• The Ende District Court in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, last December sentenced 14-year-old Ridwan Mahmud to 2 months and 15 days in jail for stealing a pair of sandals and two bars of soap. The ruling was lighter than the four months demanded by prosecutors. Ridwan sold the items for Rp 10,000.

• In November, prosecutors in Medan demanded a six-month jail term for Tiodore Galimbat Bakara, accusing him of stealing boards from a field. The defendant’s son, Binsar Bakara, accused prosecutors of foul play after witnesses admitted they hadn’t seen the theft and weren’t sure Tiodore was guilty.

• Hari Sugianto, a 60-year-old resident of Sidoarjo, East Java, was arrested last May for stealing a neon light bulb. Megaluh Police Chief Irfan at the time said Hari had stolen the light bulb on his way to Jombang after realizing he had run out of money.

• In December 2009, a district court in Cirebon, Central Java, sentenced Sarjo, 77, to 12 days in jail for stealing two bars of soap and a packet of nuts valued at Rp 13,450 from a store. Sarjo told the court he had committed the crime out of desperation, adding that he did not have money for daily necessities.

• Also in December 2009, a 55-year-old grandmother in Banyumas, Central Java, was charged with stealing three pieces of cocoa fruit and served 18 days of house arrest before receiving a suspended sentence.

The woman, Minah, returned the fruit to the plantation she took it from and apologized for the theft. She said she was surprised when the owner, Rumput Sari Antan, still reported her to the police.

Minah decided to fight the charges and traveled several times to the Purwokerto Prosecutor’s Office for questioning, and later to the district court for trial.

She eventually received a suspended sentence of one month and 15 days.

• Manisih, 39, a resident of Batang, Central Java, was arrested in November 2009 along with three members of her family for collecting the remnants of a kapok harvest in a field owned by a company, Segayung.

Although the company had not banned gleaning after the harvest, Comr. Susongko, deputy chief of the Batang Police, said the four had been charged with aggravated theft, which carries a maximum sentence of seven year in prison. JG & Media reports