INDONESIA: MAN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR KILLING PREGNANT GIRLFRIEND AND CHILD

A man who murdered his pregnant girlfriend and her 6-year-old daughter was sentenced to death by the Supreme Court in Indonesia.
Supreme Court judge Gayus Lumbuun said, as quoted by Antaranews.com, the judges formed a unanimous decision on the punishment for Rahmat Awafi, in an effort to deter others from committing violent crimes.
“Too many meditated horrible murders these days need to be responded to with heavy sanctions to discourage people from easily committing similar crimes,” Gayus said.
The sentence was more severe than the prosecutor’s request of life in prison, which would have been in accordance with Criminal Code article 340 on premeditated murder.
The North Jakarta district and Jakarta district courts previously sentenced him to 15 years in prison.
“It was a unanimous decision, no dissenting opinion,” Gayus said about the Supreme Court ruling.
According to police accounts of Rahmat’s confession, he stabbed his girlfriend, 35-year-old Hertati, multiple times in the stomach with a kitchen knife in the bedroom of her rented North Jakarta home. Rahmat said that he killed Hertati after she discovered a text message sent by his other girlfriend, who was also pregnant.