Pasifik.news – By Adam Boland – July 21, 2016
An Indonesian soldier has been jailed for 20 years for the gruesome murders of a mother and her two children in West Papua.
The Jakarta Post reports 28-year-old Semuel Djitmau killed the trio with a cleaver as they walked to a village in Bintuni in August 2015. The children were aged just six and two.
He this week fronted a military tribunal which condemned his actions.
“What the defendant had done was ruthless and inhumane, violated human rights and was against the spirit of the military of protecting the people,” said presiding judge Lt. Col. James Vandersloot.
The tribunal said Djitmau had displayed no remorse.
The victims’ family had wanted the death penalty but the sentence was the maximum possible because the solider was charged with theft and murder rather than premeditated murder.