The Semarang District Court has handed down four-month prison terms on Thursday to two members of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) over a violent raid in in Central Java that left one woman dead.
"Both defendants were proven to have carried weapons – a machete and a samurai sword...," said presiding judge Sukadi, as quoted by Sindonews. "For that, the panel of judges sentence each defendant to four months in jail, minus the detention time [they have already served]."
The sentence is more lenient than the seven months demanded by prosecutors. The judges said that both defendants, Satrio Yuwono, 22, and Bayu Agung Wicaksono, 22, were found to have breached a 1951 law on carrying weapons.
The lawyer for both defendants, M. Sutopo, said neither man would file an appeal, while prosecutor Fifik Zurofik said he was considering whether or not to challenge the sentence. "We accept the judges' ruling, even though the trial process did not prove that our clients kept the weapons," Sutopo said.
Sukadi said that the men had behaved well during the trial – a common reason given for a degree of mitigation in Indonesian courts – and that they were still young and first-time offenders.
The FPI forced the closure of an unknown number of "entertainment venues" in Sukorejo subdistrict during a raid intended to target establishment as selling alcohol. Violence flared, however, when residents fought back against members of the hard-line group.
Several members of the FPI then fled the scene, and Tri Munarti, a local woman, was killed after a car carrying FPI members hit a motorcycle on which she was traveling.
The driver, Sony Haryono, has been named a suspect in her death. He remains on trial. Four residents were also named suspects in attacks against FPI members and their vehicles.