On November 29, 2015, 24-year-old Wiyang Lautner was driving his Lamborghini through the streets of Surabaya in the early hours of the morning. It was widely reported that he was racing with a friend who was driving a Ferrari. All of a sudden, Lautner’s Lamborghini veered off the road and crashed into a warung, hitting three bystanders and killing one.
Now you might have guessed from the mention of the luxurious sports cars that Lautner comes from a wealthy family and that he would somehow escape the kind of heavy punishment one might expect for somebody guilty of reckless driving leading to vehicular manslaughter.
Well, yesterday the Surabaya District Court sentenced Lautner to just 5 months in prison, in addition to an Rp 12 million fine.
“The convict was reckless in driving his vehicle so that he didn’t foresee the effects [of his recklessness] in the crash site,” said Judge Burhanuddin during yesterday’s sentencing hearing, as quoted by Antara.
Lautner was charged with violating traffic laws with his reckless driving, which carries a maximum punishment of 6 years in prison and a fine of Rp 12 million.
But the judge decided to hand him a lighter sentence because his family has been financially assisting the victims and their families, and have pledged to continue providing financial assistance in the future.
“The convict pledged to employ a child of a victim as well as [paying for] the schooling of the victims’ children until high school,” Burhanuddin said.
Soon after the crash, Lautner came under intense scrutiny in social media as well as by some in the traditional media. This prompted his lawyers to take out an ad in a local newspaper threatening to sue those who spread negative news about Lautner.
So here we have yet another blatant example of rich people being able to pay their way out of punishment in Indonesia. The judge basically acknowledged the fact that if Lautner had been poor, and his family could not give financial assistance to the victims, then he would have been harder on him.
Why should the ability of a criminal to give money to his victims have any effect on his punishment? When people say there is no justice in Indonesia, this is what they’re talking about.
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