Jakarta. The family of slain police officer Nofriansyah Yosua Hutabarat demanded a public apology from the attorneys of the convicted murderer Ferdy Sambo for calling the murder victim a rapist after dramatic sentencing hearings at the South Jakarta District Court on Monday.

The court unexpectedly delivered the death sentence to Ferdy for ordering the murder and a prison sentence of 20 years to his wife Putri Candrawathi for assisting him in the crime.

Arman Hanis, an attorney for the couple, has since the initial investigation into the murder case accused Yosua of having raped Putri that angered Ferdy and became a motive for the murder.

But the three-member panel of judges dismissed the accusation due to a lack of forensic evidence and witnesses as they delivered harsher punishments than what was demanded by prosecutors.

After the court hearings, the parents of Yosua urged Ferdy’s attorneys to apologize publicly and restore their late son's reputation.

“I have a message to my fellow lawyers who have blindly defended [Ferdy] by calling the late son of my clients a rapist, 'the door is open to your apology', especially to Arman Hanis who on July 28 said that Nofriansyah Yosua Hutabarat didn’t deserve an honorable funeral because he had committed to sexual harassment [in Jakarta],” Martin Lukas Simanjuntak, an attorney for Yosua’s parents, told reporters.

In August last year, police dropped the sexual violence case due to a lack of evidence and instead focused on the murder investigation which saw Ferdy as the prime suspect.

“What did Arman Hanis do? He didn’t apologize. In fact, he released a new statement saying that [the sexual violence] was committed in Magelang, of which he also failed to show any evidence, no forensic report, no DNA trace,” Martin added.