A court in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Monday sentenced former National Police Internal Affairs chief Ferdy Sambo to capital punishment for the murder of his deputy, Nofriansyah Yosua Hutabarat, while charging him with obstruction of justice by concealing evidence of his crime.
The president of the court, Judge Wahyu Iman Santoso, has denied any mitigation that could show leniency to Sambo, for whom the prosecutors requested life imprisonment, a lesser sentence than the one finally applied.
On the contrary, the court, formed by three judges, has determined the existence of several aggravating factors, among them the maneuvers of the accused to hide the evidence of his crime, the damage he has caused to the institution of the Police and the disaster he has brought to many officers who were involved in the plot.
Sambo, 50, is the first of the five accused in the case to receive his verdict, while awaiting the verdict of his wife Putri Candrawathi, the two former police officers, Richard Eliezer and Ricky Rizal, and assistant Kuat Ma’ruf.
The court has found it proven that the victim was shot several times at close range by Eliezer on the orders of Sambo, who also opened fire, in July 2022. There has been much speculation regarding the motive for the murder, although prosecutors are not obliged to prove according to the verdict, reports ‘Jakarta Globe’.
Initially, Sambo attempted to cover up the murder by claiming that Hutabarat — who was unarmed at the time of his death — died after being involved in a shootout with another amid accusations that he had harassed Sambo’s wife. However, prosecutors speculated that the defendant’s wife may have been having an affair with the victim.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
