Two football officials have now been handed prison sentences for their negligence that resulted in the death of 135 spectators at a stadium.
In October 2022, an Indonesian top-flight match between Arema Malang and Persebaya Surabaya ended in tragedy when 135 people died in a stampede at the Kanjuruhan Stadium.
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The event is believed to be the second biggest football stadium disaster in history, only trailing the 328 deaths that occurred at the Estadio Nacional in Peru in a match between the aforementioned country and Argentina in 1964, per German broadcaster DW.
The tragedy in Indonesia last year is believed to have resulted from a clash between police and angry Arema Malang fans, who had encroached onto the field to talk to their players after the team had lost a derby just moments earlier.
Police opened teargas on thousands of spectators in an attempt to disperse them from the scene, triggering panic among the crowd who tried to flee. With exits at the stadium being narrow, officials said that most of the victims died from being trampled on and suffocation.
Scroll through the gallery below to see some of the scenes in the aftermath of the disaster:
According to Peoples Gazette, the chief organiser of the match, Abdul Haris, and the fixture's chief security officer, Suko Sutrisno, have now been sentenced by the Surabaya District Court.
Haris was sentenced to 18 months in prison and Sutrisno received a one-year term behind bars, with judges concluding they failed to ensure adequate security and crowd control measures at the stadium.
However, some feel that both sentences are lenient given that prosecutors were demanding at least six years in prison for the defendants, who are believed to be considering appeals.
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Verdicts are still pending for the trio of police officers who were charged with ordering the firing of teargas.
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