The Civil Society Coalition consisting of LBH Pos Malang, LBH Surabaya, YLBHI, Lokataru, IM 57+ Institute, and The Commission for Disappeared and Victims of Violence (KontraS) strongly condemns the decision of the Kanjuruhan Tragedy trial against five (5) defendants on behalf of AKP Has Darmawan (Danki III Brimob Polda East Java), Kompol Wahyu Setyo Pranoto (Head of Ops for the Malang Police), AKP Bambang Sidik Achmadi (Head of Samapta Polres Malang), Abdul Haris (Chairman of the Arema FC Match Organizing Committee), and Suko Sutrisno (Security Officer).

Based on the monitoring carried out by the Civil Society Coalition, the five defendants were given light sentences, where AKP Has Darmawan was sentenced to 1 year and 6 months in prison; Kompol Wahyu Setyo Pranoto was acquitted; AKP Bambang Sidik Achmadi was acquitted; Abdul Haris was sentenced to 1 year and 6 months; and Suko Sutrisno was sentenced to only 1 year in prison. We consider that the verdict is far from the expectations of the victim’s family, who want the defendants to be sentenced to the most severe and fair manner of punishment and to be able to reveal the high-level actors behind this tragedy.

In fact, from the beginning, we suspected this legal process, which did not reveal this case. We suspect this legal process was designed to fail in uncovering the truth (intended to fail) and protect the perpetrators of the crimes in the Kanjuruhan Tragedy. Apart from that, we also see that the trial process is part of a malicious trial process. Various oddities also supported our suspicions during the trial.

The oddities we mean include; the actors who are prosecuted are only field actors, limited access to visitors or court observers at the start of the trial, defendants were only presented online, members of the Indonesian National Police were accepted as legal advisers during trials which could lead to conflicts of interest, Judges and Public Prosecutors tended to be passive in digging for material truth, the lack of involvement of witnesses and victims’ families as witnesses in the trial, the composition of witnesses was dominated by police officers, intimidation by members of the Police by causing noise during the trial process, the obscurity of the fact of shooting tear gas into the stands, to incidents of violence and suffering supporters both inside and outside the stadium which are not disclosed in full.

We consider that this trial process has shown that the portrait of law enforcement in Indonesia does not favor the victims and families of victims of crime. The passing of a sentence far from a sense of justice for the victim and the victim’s family has set a bad precedent for law enforcement and human rights in Indonesia. Apart from that, this judicial process is also an embarrassment to Indonesia in the eyes of the international community, which shows a bad portrait and the destruction of Indonesia’s rule of law because the law is manipulated in such a way.

Therefore, we, the Civil Society Coalition, urge:

1. The National Police Chief to ensure that the legal process runs smoothly, transparently, and independently;
2. Dirkrimum Polda East Java conducted an investigation and reinvestigation to find new suspects, especially the perpetrators of the tear gas shooting;
3. The National Commission on Human Rights of the Republic of Indonesia stipulates the Kanjuruhan Tragedy is a gross violation of human rights;
4. The Judicial Commission and the Supervisory Board of the Supreme Court examined the Panel of Judges who tried the Kanjuruhan Tragedy case for alleged code of ethics violations.

Surabaya – Jakarta, 16 March 2023

Civil Society Coalition

Contact person:

Daniel Siagian – LBH Malang Post
Jauhar Kurniawan – LBH Surabaya
Muhammad Isnur – YLBHI
Andi Muhammad Rezaldy – KontraS
Fachrizal Afandi – LPBH – NU Malang City