A 17-year-old high school student, identified by his initials ZA, from Malang regency, East Java has been arrested after police said he stabbed an alleged mugger to death in order to protect his girlfriend from sexual assault.
According to the local police, on Sunday evening, ZA and his girlfriend were sitting on a bench at their school when they were approached by four alleged muggers, one of whom was identified as 35-year-old Misnan.
“One of the muggers was killed in a duel with his victim (ZA). We have arrested two while one is still a fugitive,” Malang Regency Police Chief Yade Setiawan Ujung told reporters yesterday, as quoted by Kumparan.
Ujung said the alleged mugger who was killed was Misnan. He said that ZA initially did not fight back when Misnan and his accomplices took his and his girlfriend’s belongings, but the high school student took out his knife — which he had on him for use in an unspecified school project — when Misnan and one accomplice made advances on his girlfriend.
“I was angry, sir. They wanted my girlfriend to serve them intimately for three minutes. I ended up fighting back. I took the knife and stabbed it in [Misnan’s] chest,” ZA told reporters at the police station.
Police have yet to charge ZA with any crime as the teenager may qualify to use self defense to avoid prosecution. Police say the murder weapon being a knife for a school project may also be used to absolve ZA of any intent to murder.
However, should ZA be charged, police say he may face up to seven years in prison for manslaughter under the KUHP (Criminal Code).
