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The attack left Novel Baswedan blind in one eye
Two Indonesian police officers have been jailed for an acid attack on a prominent anti-corruption investigator.
The attack on Novel Baswedan three years ago left him blind in one eye and is suspected to be related to corruption cases he was working on.
Officers were arrested after President Joko Widodo ordered the case reopened.
But the victim’s attorney said the sentences, two and one and a half years, were too short.
During the attack, Rahmat Kadir Mahulette threw acid at Baswedan, while riding a motorcycle driven by his colleague Ronny Bugis.
Mahulette was jailed for two years, while Bugis was jailed for a year and a half.
His lawyer, Muhammad Isnur, told BBC Indonesia that the sentence was “heartbreaking.”
“The verdict is proof of the level of injustice [against Mr Baswedan] and the level of impunity for those who carried it out will do nothing to prevent the perpetrators from committing such crimes again, “he said.
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The judge announced the verdict in a ruling broadcast live
The sentences were longer than the one-year term that prosecutors had sought for the attack.
Speaking before the verdict, Baswedan told BBC Indonesia that he had “forgiven the perpetrators.”
“I have accepted what happened to me, so I still have the spirit and passion to continue fighting corruption.”
An attack that shocked Indonesia
Rebecca Henschke, BBC East Asia specialist
The brazen acid attack on anti-corruption icon Novel Baswedan as he was walking home after praying at his local mosque deeply shocked Indonesia.
His three-year fight for justice is seen as a test case of the seriousness with which the current Joko Widodo government fights against endemic corruption in the country.
Baswedan is arguably the country’s most respected anti-corruption investigator, responsible for several high-profile cases that put high-ranking officials behind bars. It was no secret that this had made him many powerful enemies, in parliament and in the police force, and he regularly received death threats.
Today’s verdict of two lower-ranking police officers will not go to bed in this case. Baswedan has always insisted that he has evidence that the attack was ordered by someone much higher in the chain of command, and has repeatedly publicly criticized the police’s handling of the investigation into the attack.
Despite being blind in one eye, he shows no signs of being silenced and insists that he will continue to fight corruption.
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