By Adam Harvey
Lawyers for Byron Bay woman Sara Connor say they are shocked by a request from Indonesian prosecutors that their client be jailed for eight years for her role in the killing of a police officer.
Prosecutors said she was equally culpable and should serve the same amount of time as her boyfriend, David Taylor, who admitted beating a police officer to death.
Connor has also been attacked for being “evasive” in court and uncooperative with police and prosecutors.
For seven months, Connor has been optimistic the charges against her would fall over when the court understood she had no role in the killing of police officer Wayan Sudarsa.
She said she tried only to break up a fight between the officer and Taylor over a missing bag, but prosecutor Anak Agung Ngurah Jayalantara took a harsh view of Connor’s evidence.
“During the trial the defendant was evasive in giving her statements and she never admitted what she’s done,” he said.
Mr Jayalantara was particularly critical of Connor’s actions in the hours after Sudarsa’s battered body was found on a Kuta beach. Connor said she cut up the policeman’s cards from his wallet to protect him from identity theft.
“The attempt she made to destroy evidence is a form of involvement in the death of the victim, so unconsciously the defendant was trying to get rid of everything that was related to the victim because she wanted to protect herself from any involvement in the death of the victim,” the prosecutor said.
As the prosecutors demanded she serve a long jail term, Connor looked towards her own lawyers, dumbfounded.
You could hear her say “eight years”, in apparent disbelief.
Lawyers reiterate victim was alive when Connor, Taylor left
Connor’s lawyer, Erwin Siregar, has one more chance to convince judges she should not be jailed for the full term.