Indonesia stadium disaster: Football match officials jailed over deadly crush

An Indonesian court sentenced two football match officials on Thursday over a stadium crush that killed 135 people in October.

Match organiser Abdul Haris was found guilty of negligence and sentenced to 18 months in prison by a panel of three judges at Surabaya District Court.

Prosecutors had sought a sentence of six years and eight months.

"I am sentencing the defendant to a year and a half in prison," presiding judge Abu Achmad Sidqi Amsya told the court in Surabaya, the capital of East Java.

Security official Suko Sutrisno was also found guilty of negligence and sentenced to one year in prison.

"The defendant did not anticipate the chaos because there has never been an emergency situation before. The defendant also did not understand his job as a security official well," the judge said.

He said neither man had verified the safety of the stadium since 2020 and “did not prepare an emergency plan”.

Both men have seven days to appeal the verdict.

It is Indonesia's first ruling on the incident, which happened when thousands of fans invaded the pitch at the match between hosts Arema FC and rivals Persebaya Surabaya at the Kanjuruhan Stadium in Kepanjen on October 1.

Police fired teargas to try to stop violence, leading to a crush of panicked fans running for exits.

It was one of the worst stadium disasters in the sport's history.

Three police officers have also been charged over the incident and are awaiting verdicts.

Authorities in Surabaya sent 360 police officers to secure the court for the verdict on Thursday.

The former director of the company that runs the Indonesian Premier League remains under police investigation.

Police described the pitch invasion as a "riot" and said two officers were killed, but survivors accused the police of using excessive force.

Witnesses said officers beat them with sticks and shields before shooting teargas canisters into crowds.

The match was attended only by Arema fans, as organisers had banned Persebaya supporters because of Indonesia’s history of football rivalries turning violent.

An investigation set up by Indonesian President Joko Widodo in response to a national outcry over the deaths concluded that the teargas was the main cause of the crowd surge.

It said police on duty had no knowledge that the use of teargas was prohibited at football stadiums and used it “indiscriminately” on the field, in the stands and outside, causing the more than 42,000 spectators inside the 36,000-seat stadium to rush to the exits — several of which were locked.