21 Jul 2016

20 years jail for soldier over deaths in West Papua

12:10 pm on 21 July 2016

An Indonesian military tribunal in Jayapura, Papua, has sentenced a soldier to 20 years jail for killing three people, including two toddlers, in Bintuni, West Papua.

The soldier, Semuel Djitmau, was also found guilty of theft.

He had also been dismissed from the military.

The dead woman, the mother of the children who were aged 6 and 4, was also four months pregnant.

The Jakarta Post reported the judge said the sentence was higher than the military prosecutors had sought because there had been no mitigating factors.

The woman's husband said Djitmau should have been sentenced to death for killing three people.

The paper reported him expressing disappointment the child protection law had not been applied.