Indonesia · Jakarta / Bekasi · March 2014

The Murder of Ade Sara Angelina Suroto

Ade Sara Angelina Suroto, a 19-year-old student, was murdered in March 2014. Ahmad Imam Al Hafitd and Assyifa Ramadhani were convicted of premeditated murder; Indonesia's Supreme Court later increased both sentences from 20 years to life imprisonment.

Symbolic non-graphic memorial artwork for the Ade Sara Angelina Suroto case
Victim-aware note: this page omits graphic details of the violence. It focuses on Ade Sara, the proven sequence of events, the trial and the final appellate outcome.
StatusSolved / adjudicated
CategoryPremeditated murder / intimate-partner-related violence
VictimAde Sara Angelina Suroto, 19
DateMarch 3, 2014
Trial courtCentral Jakarta District Court
DefendantsAhmad Imam Al Hafitd and Assyifa Ramadhani
District-court sentences20 years each
Final Supreme Court sentencesLife imprisonment

A young woman at the center of a planned killing

Ade Sara Angelina Suroto was a 19-year-old university student. Court reporting identified Ahmad Imam Al Hafitd, her former boyfriend, and Assyifa Ramadhani as the two people who planned and carried out the crime in early March 2014.

The prosecution's case treated the killing as premeditated rather than spontaneous. The legal question mattered because Indonesian Criminal Code Article 340 carries substantially heavier punishment than ordinary murder.

Investigation and prosecution

Ade Sara's body was found near the Bintara toll road after the killing. Police arrested Hafitd and Assyifa, and prosecutors brought a principal charge of premeditated murder. During the 2014 trial, the court heard testimony and examined evidence connecting both defendants to the plan and its execution.

This archive does not reproduce the method of killing in detail. The central established fact is that the courts found both defendants criminally responsible for a deliberately planned homicide.

Twenty-year sentences at the Central Jakarta District Court

On December 9, 2014, the Central Jakarta District Court found both defendants guilty of premeditated murder. Each received a sentence of 20 years in prison. Prosecutors had requested life imprisonment and challenged the lighter punishment.

ANTARA's contemporaneous reporting records the court's finding that both defendants were legally and convincingly proven to have committed premeditated murder. The Jakarta Post likewise reported the two 20-year sentences and the prosecution's request for life terms.

The Supreme Court increased the punishment

The case reached Indonesia's Supreme Court. On July 9, 2015, the court granted the prosecution's cassation request, rejected the defendants' attempts to obtain lighter treatment and increased both sentences to life imprisonment.

The Supreme Court decision involving Hafitd is recorded as 793 K/PID/2015, while Assyifa's case was handled separately under 791 K/PID/2015. The court's published case index marks the Hafitd judgment as final and binding. Contemporary reporting also confirms that the Supreme Court considered the district court's sentencing reasoning inadequate for the gravity of the offense.

Why the appellate distinction matters

Some summaries of the case stop at the 20-year district-court judgment. That is no longer the correct final procedural status. The life sentences imposed at cassation are the operative outcome documented by the Supreme Court and contemporaneous Indonesian reporting.

For that reason, this archive classifies the case as solved / adjudicated. There is no unresolved offender question in the criminal proceeding covered here.

Timeline

March 3, 2014: Ade Sara Angelina Suroto is murdered.

2014: Ahmad Imam Al Hafitd and Assyifa Ramadhani are arrested and prosecuted for premeditated murder.

December 9, 2014: the Central Jakarta District Court convicts both defendants and sentences each to 20 years.

July 9, 2015: the Supreme Court grants the prosecution's cassation request and increases both punishments to life imprisonment.

July 23–24, 2015: Indonesian media report the Supreme Court's ruling and identify the separate cassation case numbers.

Current status

The case is adjudicated. Ahmad Imam Al Hafitd and Assyifa Ramadhani were convicted of premeditated murder, and the Supreme Court imposed life imprisonment on both. No later verified judgment located for this file displaced that final cassation outcome.

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Sources

Related Indonesia case files