March 9 – An Indonesian court has handed prison sentences to two match officials after finding them guilty of negligence over one of the world’s deadliest stadium disasters.
The October 2022 derby in Malang, East Java, at the Kanjuruhan stadium between Arema FC and Persebaya Surabaya ended in chaos with 135 spectators killed, many crushed as they fled for exits after police fired tear gas into the crowd.
Match organiser Abdul Haris was found guilty “due to his negligence causing people to die and get severely injured”, judge Abu Achmad Shiddqi Hamsya said at the court in Surabaya. He was sentenced to a year and a half in prison though prosecutors had asked for six years.
The judges also found security officer Suko Sutrisno guilty of negligence and jailed him for one year.
Both men worked for Arema FC and have been banned for life .
An investigation by Indonesia’s human rights commission found the main cause of the stampede was police 45 rounds of tear gas, banned by FIFA as a crowd control measure.
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