Accused Bali killer Sara Connor fears for the future of her kids if she is found guilty
A STRESSED and upset Sara Connor fears for the future of her two children if she is found guilty of involvement in the death of a Bali policeman.
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BYRON Bay woman Sara Connor is stressed and upset on the eve of her Bali court appearance Wednesday where her lawyers will make a final bid to convince the judges she should not be jailed in relation to the death of a police officer.
Connor’s legal team visited her in jail this week to discuss the penultimate day of her trial and say she is shocked and stressed at the severity of the sentence requested by the prosecutor.
Ever since prosecutors demanded that the 46-year-old be found guilty of group violence causing the death of police veteran Wayan Sudarsa and jailed for eight years Connor has been despairing about her fate and about the future for her two children at home in Byron Bay.
Her lawyers say that under Indonesian law the judges can ignore the prosecutor’s demand and the charges on her indictment and find a lesser offence is proven but order her to be released because it was not one of the charges preferred by the prosecutor.
Or they find her not guilty and free her.
They can also ignore the prosecution’s demand and find her guilty of any of the three charges
and give a sentence that is higher or lower than the demand.
Connor’s lawyers will on Wednesday argue that, based on the evidence before the court, the only charge that she should face is one of concealing evidence of a crime, punishable by a maximum of seven months jail.
This relates to her own admission of cutting up and disposing of the dead police officer’s ID cards to avoid identity theft and of later jointly, with her boyfriend and co-accused David James Taylor, burning the clothes they were wearing on the night of the killing.
Connor has not been charged with this offence but lawyer Erwin Siregar told News Corporation that, under the Indonesian system, which is derived from Dutch law, a ruling known as onslag, means the Judges can throw out the three charges on her indictment and instead find the concealing evidence offence proven but release her.
Mr Siregar said the law also states that the prosecutors can appeal this outcome to a higher court where the Judges would then have the option of reinstating and convicting her of the original charges or finding her guilty of the lesser charge.
However if she is found not guilty of the three charges on her indictment, known as vrijspraak, there is no possibility of a prosecution appeal and she would be free to go home to her two boys, aged nine and 11.
Connor faces charges of murder, group violence causing death and assault causing death. Prosecutors have submitted that she is not guilty of murder but should be found guilty of the group violence charge.
And in a scathing assessment of her defence case the prosecution seized on a personal plea, made by Connor to the Judges, where she said she deeply regretted and apologised but maintained that none of her actions killed the victim. The prosecution submitted that this was
contradictory and indicated guilt on her part.
Mr Siregar describes this as a ridiculous leap.
“Sara regretted, not because she is guilty, but Sara regretted why this thing happened and someone died,” Mr Siregar said.
“The public prosecutor said that Sara’s regret means that Sara is guilty and we are countering that.”
Fellow lawyer Robert Khuana said it was totally wrong to suggest that Connor’s statement was a confession.
“That is totally wrong. Of course someone died and she can say I apologise, that is normal,” Mr Khuana said after visiting Connor in jail.
“Sara is stressed because she was very shocked to hear the prosecutor give the demand, eight years. Also as lawyers we are very surprised. There is no evidence of article 170 (group violence causing death).
“Sara was only concealing the evidence.”
The legal team will also counter the prosecution’s submission that Connor was not co-operative and failed to answer honestly and admit her guilt.
Mr Siregar said the defence will submit that Connor answered all questions and co-operated from day one and that the prosecution’s assessment of her is unfair given that David Taylor has admitted that he was the one who killed the officer and testified that he never saw Connor hitting the officer.
He said he prosecution’s main eyewitness was full of lies and inconsistencies. Hotel security guard Suryana testified that he watched the incident between Connor and Taylor and the officer for 15 minutes on the beach that night but saw no movement and thought they were kidding around.
“For 15 minutes he said he saw no movement. How can we accept a witness like that? This is not logical,” Mr Siregar said of Suryana’s evidence to the court.
In their submission prosecutors have demanded the same verdict for Connor and Taylor — eight years — despite Taylor admitting that he killed the officer.
For this reason Connor’s lawyers have opted to make one final submission this week before the verdict in the case, which is expected next week. By contrast Taylor’s lawyers eschewed the right to make final submissions, asking instead to go straight to a verdict, based on his confession and contrition.
Under an Indonesian law on judicial powers Judges in criminal trials are bound to take into account a defendant’s courtroom behaviour and demeanour and other factors related to guilt and confession when determining a sentence to fit the crime.
Professor Tim Lindsey, Director, Centre for Indonesian Law, Islam and Society at Melbourne Law School, says this makes a lot of difference to the verdict in Indonesian trials.
“The Law on Judicial Powers No. 48 of 2009, Article 8 states that judges must take into account the good and bad qualities of the accused when determining the weight of the sentence to be imposed,” Prof Lindsey said.
“In applying these provisions, judges routinely take into account the courtroom behaviour of the accused and whether they show remorse or have achieved a settlement with victims. This is routine and often set out in the judgment.”
“It is actually in the law, the judges are instructed to take into account their behaviour in the courtroom. These are matters they are legally bound to take into account and they do and they make a lot of difference.
“This is very well established, they are required to take it into account and they do.”
A verdict in Connor and Taylor’s trials is expected next week.
Originally published as Accused Bali killer Sara Connor fears for the future of her kids if she is found guilty
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