Patron Management

Police officers and match officials in Indonesia are on trial this week in connection with a stadium stampede that killed more than 100 people in October.

Al Jazeera reported that three officers and two officials are being tried on charges of negligence over their alleged roles last year in the deaths of 135 people at a football match in East Java.

According to the report, they each are facing a maximum prison sentence of five years if convicted over the disaster, one of the world’s worst stadium stampedes.

The trial, which began on Monday, is being held via teleconference due to security concerns, said court spokesperson Agung Pranata.

On Oct. 1, police fired tear gas inside Kanjuruhan Stadium in Malang, where fans had run onto the pitch after Arema FC, the home team, lost its match. Al Jazeera reported that there were not any supporters from rival Persebaya Surabaya because of previous crowd issues. Amid the clouds of smoke, panicked people rushed for the exits, some of which were locked.

Police described the incident as a riot and said two officers were killed, but survivors accused them of overreacting, according to the Al Jazeera report. Videos showed officers using force, kicking and hitting fans with batons, and pushing spectators back into the stands.

An investigation team set up by Indonesian President Joko Widodo amid national outrage over the deaths concluded that the tear gas was the main cause of the crowd surge. The investigators said police on duty did not know that the use of tear gas was banned as a crowd-control measure at football matches and used it “indiscriminately” on the field, in the stands and outside the stadium, causing more than 42,000 spectators inside the 36,000-seat stadium to rush to escape.