5 days ago
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Bali: Family members of an Australian gunned down last year inside a Bali villa are devastated at what their lawyer says are disgustingly light sentences handed to the two standover men convicted of his premeditated murder.
Australians Mevlut Coskun and Paea I Middlemore Tupou were each handed 16-year jail terms by the panel of Denpasar judges on Monday for killing Melbourne father-of-six Zivan Radmanovic in a surprise attack in the early hours of June 14.
The sentence is far short of the life sentence maximum sought by the family, and two years short of what prosecutors had proposed during the trial.
“The judges have clearly stated all the elements of premeditated murder. A life was taken. They had firearms. They went into the villa without consent. It sounded so clear they would go 18 years at a minimum,” the family’s lawyer, Sary Latief from DNT Lawyers, said.
“It’s disgusting.”
Dressed in crisp shirts and trousers for the verdicts on Monday, Coskun, 23, Tupou, 26, were led in handcuffs to the centre of the courtroom and leant silently towards a translator.
They were just metres from 10 members of Radmanovic’s family, who had returned to Bali on Sunday night after going home in frustration last week when the judges unexpectedly delayed the verdicts.
“I hope you get life,” one of them muttered as the pair was marched into the packed courtroom.
When the sentence was translated by Latief, Radmanovic’s widow Jazmyn Gourdeas buried her head into the shoulder of a family member. Others cried. None of them spoke outside court.
The adjournment on Monday last week was because the panel of judges had not yet agreed on an outcome for a third man charged, 27-year-old Sydney plumber Darcy Jenson. He is accused of organising logistics, including getaway cars, travel tickets and the hammer Tupou used to smash open the door of the villa. Jenson’s lawyers said he was not aware of the plot.
His verdict was expected later on Monday. Radmanovic’s devastated family did not bother to stick around.
Radmanovic and his wife had been in Bali only a couple of days for Gourdeas’ 30th birthday, and were sharing the villa with her sister, Daniella Gourdeas, and Daniella’s partner, Sanar Ghanim – the apparent target of the botched attack, the court heard.
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