The use of tear gas canisters inside an enclosed stadium is banned by the world’s football governing body FIFA, due to its potential to create chaos.
The same court had earlier sentenced the head of the match’s organising committee, Abdul Haris, and the organiser’s security official Suko Sutrisno to 18 months and one year in prison respectively.
The former director of the company that runs Indonesia’s premier league, Akhmad Hadian Lukita has also been named as a suspect. His case is still being investigated by the police and has not moved to trial.
“INDICATIONS OF MISTRIAL”
Mr Muhammad Isnur, chairman of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation, an organisation which is representing a different group of victims’ families, also called for fresh charges against the defendants.
“We saw that throughout the court hearing process, there were indications of a mistrial,” Mr Isnur told CNA.
The lawyer highlighted that the majority of the witnesses who testified at the trials were police officers, leaving little room for victims and their families to present their side of the story.
There is also the issue of differences in the verdicts involving the three defendants, despite their trials virtually hearing the same witnesses.
Hasdarmawan, a field commander for East Java police’s mobile brigade unit, was jailed for 18 months while Bambang Sidik Achmadi, chief of the Malang police riot control task force was acquitted of all charges despite both ordering their men to fire tear gas toward the supporters.
The third officer was Wahyu Setyo Pranoto, the Malang Police operational chief. Mr Pranoto was the most senior officer in charge of securing the Oct 1 match. He too was acquitted.