Amir Tejo, Pasuruan (East Java) – A court here on Wednesday sentenced a woman to 30 days in prison after finding her guilty of stealing cookies worth Rp 19,000 ($2.05) while she was handing out snacks to fellow workers last year at the tobacco company where she worked.
The trial and conviction were the latest in a string of questionable verdicts by the country's judiciary, and a local labor alliance supporting Sulfiana, the defendant and a former worker at PT United Tobacco, vowed to appeal the sentence.
In March 2009, Sulfiana, a 35-year-old single mother, was asked by the company to distribute free cookies to fellow workers, but one worker apparently failed to received one. A complaint followed, prompting the company's management to suspend Sulfiana from her job of 10 years and pursue a criminal case against her.
The woman offered to pay Rp 500 to compensate the company for the cookie, but her offer as rejected. Following a police investigation, the case was forwarded to the Bangil District Court, by which time the company was claiming that 11 cookies were stolen at a loss of Rp 19,000.
Jamaludin, chairman of the local labor union, said an appeal was planned because the guilty verdict allowed the company to fire Sulfiana. "The evidence presented at the trial was very weak," Jamaludin said.
Indonesia has seen several questionable legal cases in the past year that have exposed incompetence and corruption within its judicial system. Rights activists claim the rich and powerful are immune from prosecution and only the poor go to prison.
The most famous case involved Prita Mulyasari, a housewife in Banten who was jailed for three weeks last year for defamation after sending an e-mail message complaining about the treatment she received at a local hospital.
Last year, Minah, 55, an illiterate grandmother from a small village in Central Java, was placed under house arrest for 18 days for allegedly stealing three cocoa beans. She was convicted and given a suspended sentence.
In another case, two farmhands in East Java were detained by police for nearly a month for allegedly stealing a watermelon to quench their thirst.