INDONESIA: MAN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR RAPE, MURDER OF TANGERANG STUDENT

December 18, 2012: In Indonesia, the Tangerang District Court handed down the death penalty to 28-year-old Muhamad Soleh, who was found guilty of murdering a university student after gang-raping her.
“There is nothing that may lighten [the sentence]. The defendant doesn’t regret his actions, and has been proven to have committed a premeditated murder and rape,” chief judge Machri Hendra said as he read out the verdict.
“The defendant does deserve the death penalty,” he added, according to Indonesian news portal tempo.co
The sentence was in line with prosecutors’ demand.
Soleh was proven guilty of masterminding the gang rape and murder of his girlfriend of three months, Izzun Nadliyah, a 24-year-old student of Syarif Hidayatullah Islamic State University (UIN) in Ciputat, Tangerang. Soleh is reportedly already married with three wives.
Izzun’s dead body was found in April on the side of a street in Ciangir village, in the subdistrict of Legok.
Five other men — Sandra Susanto, 22; Jasrip, 22; Oreg, 28; Endang, 21; and Noriv Juandi, 21 — are standing trial in the same case for allegedly helping Soleh carry out the murder. Some of them also allegedly raped Izzun.
Tangerang Police earlier said Soleh murdered Izzun after he was irritated by her nagging him about a laptop she had lent him. She asked Soleh to return the laptop, but he had sold it for Rp 1.5 million ($155).
About 150 students and dozens of members of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) attended the hearing. The case drew the attention of the hard-line FPI after Soleh stepped on a Koran in an outburst during a previous court session. (Sources: thejakartaglobe.com, 19/12/2012)