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Indonesian policemen in acid attack on anti-graft investigator jailed; rights groups slam verdict
- The elite officers threw acid on Novel Baswedan of the KPK outside a mosque three years ago
- But rights groups said the sentences of 18 months and two years fell far below the maximum penalty of 12 years for premeditated attacks causing permanent disability
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An Indonesian court on Thursday sentenced two elite police officers to 18 months and two years in prison for attacking a senior anti-corruption investigator with acid, in a verdict slammed by rights groups and anti-corruption activists.
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Novel Baswedan, a leading investigator at the Corruption Eradication Commission, known by its Indonesian abbreviation KPK, was almost blinded when two men on a motorbike threw acid at him as he left dawn prayers at a mosque in April 2017.
The attack drew condemnation across Indonesia, which suffers from endemic corruption. KPK, seen as one of the few effective institutions in the nation of more than 270 million people, is frequently under legislative attack by lawmakers who want to reduce its powers.
A panel of three judges in North Jakarta District Court delivered the verdict after a trial that was held remotely due to the coronavirus pandemic.
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The two members of an elite police mobile brigade, Rahmat Kadir Mahulette and Ronny Bugis, were arrested in December on the outskirts of Jakarta almost three years after the attack.
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