Ronald Tannur arrested again for girl’s death

Jakarta. Prosecutors on Sunday re-arrested Gregorius Ronald Tannur after the Supreme Court convicted him of aggravated assault that led to the death last year of his girlfriend, Dini Sera Afrianti, and the case gained nationwide attention.

“Ronald Tannur was arrested at a house in the Victoria Regency Complex in Surabaya at 2:40 p.m. today,” Attorney General’s Office spokesman Harli Siregar said in a text message. “He is currently in custody by the East Java Prosecutor’s Office. The arrest complied with the judgment of the Supreme Court.”

In July, Surabaya District Court judges initially acquitted Ronald of murder and aggravated assault charges. They argued that the woman died from drinking too much alcohol and that Ronald had no malicious intent to kill her, despite video footage showing Ronald crashing his car into Dini in a Surabaya parking lot.

The panel also ordered prosecutors to immediately release Ronald.

When appealing to the Supreme Court, the prosecutor’s office secretly initiated an investigation into the judges.

On October 23, the AGO announced that it had arrested three judges – Erintuah Damanik, Mangapul and Heru Hanindyo – along with Ronald’s lawyer, Lisa Rahmat, on bribery charges. A search of their residences in Surabaya, Semarang and Jakarta revealed banknotes worth more than 20 billion rupees ($1.3 million). Prosecutors allege that judges received bribes from Ronald’s lawyer in exchange for his acquittal.

Following these arrests, the Supreme Court overturned the acquittal, sentencing Ronald to five years for aggravated assault rather than murder.

Two days later, the AGO announced the arrest of a former Supreme Court official, identified as Zarof Ricar, for allegedly accepting bribes from defense lawyers to influence judges in the hope that the acquittal would be upheld on appeal.

Zarof, who retired from the Supreme Court in 2022, is accused of collecting 5 billion rupees from a lawyer to be distributed among the three judges handling the case and himself.

However, a search of Zarof’s private residence in Jakarta turned up 920 billion rupees ($58.8 million) in cash and 51 kilograms of gold bars, which prosecutors linked to his past corrupt activities while serving on the Supreme Court.

It is unclear whether prosecutors will bring corruption charges against Zarof in connection with the money and gold finds.

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