Four more people have been convicted for the brutal murder of Persija Jakarta fan Haringga Sirla in Bandung, and, like the first two accused who were already convicted, they are also all underage.
The Bandung District Court this morning held sentencing hearings for four teenagers who were found guilty of fatally beating Haringga. As reported by Detik, the boys, aged 15-17, were in tears as the judge read out their sentences.
“We’re sentencing child one to four years in prison, child two to four years in prison, and child three to three years and six months in prison,” Judge Suwanto said during the first session of the sentencing hearing, in which three of the four teenagers appeared together.
In the second session, the judge handed a three-year prison sentence to the fourth convict.
The four boys were all found guilty of murder, but the court decided to give them shorter sentences in accordance with juvenile justice practices.
The boys and their lawyers have yet to decide whether or not they wish to appeal their sentences.
Late last month, the Bandung District Court also spared two teenagers maximum punishment for the murder of Haringga and sentenced them to three and three-and-a-half years in prison.
According to the Bandung Police, 23-year-old soccer fan Haringga went to the West Java capital on Sept. 23 to watch his team, Persija, take on their traditional rivals Persib. Once in Bandung, he met up with his friend, a resident of the city, and went to the Gelora Bandung Lautan Api (GBLA) stadium.
Once there, the two crossed paths with a group of Persib fans who were doing a “sweeping” patrol around the stadium demanding that people show them their ID cards to make sure there were no Persija fans in the area. Haringga was the unfortunate Persija fan netted in that sweep.
Videos of the assault on Haringga went viral online. In one disturbing clip, Haringga is seen being savagely beaten to a bloody pulp by Persib supporters — several small children included — as they chant songs telling him to “go home”.
Fourteen people were arrested for Haringga’s murder, but only the six teenagers have so far gone on trial.
Since 2012, seven people from both sides of the Persija-Persib rivalry have been killed in violent attacks by rival supporters.
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