The Mitsubishi Outlander Christopher drove right after the incident.
Update: As reported in Jakarta Globe, the judges actually handed Christopher a 2-year suspended sentence. This means Christopher will serve a 2-year probationary period. If he doesn’t break the law during that period, then his one-and-a-half year jail sentence and Rp 10 million fine are cancelled. RAGE.
We had little faith that our justice system would punish 23-year-old Christopher Daniel Sjarief properly for killing four people in an attempted hit-and-run in Pondok Indah on January 20.
After all, the prosecutor in Christopher’s case only charged him with 2-and-a-half years in prison for violating traffic laws that normally would’ve warranted a 12-year imprisonment.
And today, pretty much all our faith in the justice system evaporated when judges sentenced Christopher to just one-and-a-half years in prison.
“The council of judges sentences [the defendant] to one year and six months imprisonment and a fine of Rp 10 million, which could be exchanged with an additional one month in prison if not paid,” said Head Judge Made Sutisna at the South Jakarta District Court today, as quoted by Tempo.
Rp 10 million is probably nothing to Christopher’s wealthy family. We can’t help but suspect that Christopher got out of much heavier punishment because his family paid off all the right people.
There has always been something amiss about the handling of Christopher’s case. On January 20, Christopher drove his friend’s car in Pondok Indah recklessly and crashed into multiple vehicles, killing four and injuring two others. The police initially said that Christopher tested positive for LSD consumption, only for that statement to be retracted several days later after another drug test cleared Christopher of drug charges.
Another controversy arose in May when Christopher was allowed to leave prison and serve “city detention” instead during his ongoing trial.
Reader Interactions