JAKARTA: Prosecutors from the Medan Prosecutor’s Office in North Sumatra demanded during a trial at the Medan District Court an eight-month counselling session for a 12-year-old girl accused of killing her own mother.
Head of the intelligence section at Medan Prosecutor’s Office, Valentino Harry Manurung, said the demand for eight months of counselling was submitted by prosecutors to the panel of judges during a closed trial on May 26.
He said the demand was in line with Article 458 (2) of the 2023 Criminal Code (KUHP) and Law No. 11/2012 on the juvenile justice system. Valentino said the girl was categorised as underage, adding that children under 14 years of age cannot be sentenced to imprisonment, as regulated by Article 113 (3) of the Criminal Code, hence the sentence demand in the form of counselling.
“The demand of eight months for [the defendant] is not in jail but treatment in the form of counselling and psychological intervention,” Valentino told The Jakarta Post on Monday (June 1).
The girl has not been detained in prison was but has been in the custody of the Women and Children Protection management unit (UPTD) of the North Sumatra Women’s Empowerment, Children Protection and Family Planning Agency. During her custody she has received suitable education and nutrition.
“She has received education while in custody, just like any other schoolchild,” Valentino said.
Responding to questions as to whether the eight-month counselling demand already met a sense of justice, Valention said it would depend on how people viewed justice and from which perspective.
He said everyone had their own views on justice. Prosecutors regard the demand as meeting justice based on several mitigating factors, such as the girl admitting her wrongdoing and showing remorse, her good demeanour during trial, having no prior offences and the fact that she is still only 12 years old and still has a future.
Meanwhile, an exacerbating factor was that she caused the death of her own mother. However, it was mentioned that the defendant may have been affected by online games of a violent nature.
Valentino added that she was also suffering depression as a result of her mother’s temperament, which resulted in frequent beatings.
“All these considerations led to prosecutors demanding counselling and not imprisonment,” he added.
Medan District Court started the closed trial in April under Judge Evelyne Napitupulu. Prosecutors have called five witnesses; the girl’s father, older sister, neighbour, a physician and a nurse, who arrived at the scene of the crime on Dec 10, 2025.
The defendant was charged under Article 44 of Law No. 23/2004 on domestic violence and subsidiary articles 338 and 340 of the KUHP.
She was charged under the Domestic Violence Law because she had not prepared a weapon to kill her own mother but simply used a kitchen knife that was at hand, which she used to stab her mother as she slept.
The father, who was in the house at the time called an ambulance but the victim was reported dead by the time it arrived. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
