Heru Andriyanto – The Press Council is warning that misleading information in the investigation into the murder of a television journalist have caused prosecutors to demand a much too lenient eight-month sentence for the suspects.

The council dismissed police suggestions that Ridwan Salamun, a contributor for Jakarta-based Sun TV who was killed last year during a clash between residents of Fiditan village in Tual, southeast Maluku, took part in the violence.

"At that time, he was doing his journalistic job," said Bambang Harymurti, deputy chairman of the council, contradicting the police version of the story that the defendants were attacked by the victim with a machete and acted in self-defense.

Bambang's statements came after a visit to the Attorney General's Office to argue against the lenient sentence request. He said Ridwan was found with his camera beside his body, a clear indication that he was present at the scene to cover a story.

"The attorney general regretted the findings that came a little bit too late because the case was already on trial and prosecutors worked based on police documents," Bambang said.

"We initially thought that everything would be fine as the local police chief said the crime was punishable by 12 years in jail. So it was a surprise to hear that prosecutors demanded only eight months," he added.

Insany Syahbarwati, from the Maluku Media Center, said police might have breached their procedures when officers at the scene failed to come to Ridwan's aid following the attack.

"During the clash, there were only four officers at the scene and they let Ridwan lie on the ground for two hours, without any attempt to evacuate him," she said.

"That makes us suspicious of an attempt to cover the negligence by inventing the story that Ridwan was also among the suspects involved in the clash, [and] not on journalistic duties."

Insany said she had handed photographs from the crime scene to the attorney general showing the camera near Ridwan's head and no machete near his body.

AGO spokesman Noor Rachmad said prosecutors' hands were tied because the sentence demand had already been read before the court.

"They should have come to us before the demand was read so we might take the findings into account. What we can do now is to await the court verdict," Noor said.