Rio Alex Bulo was executed in Central Java in August 2008, seven years after a district court sentenced him to death. The Baturaden killing of January 21, 2001 led to his arrest and to that sentence. After his arrest, police and the Indonesian press linked him to several earlier killings across Java between 1997 and 2000, and to a death inside Nusakambangan prison in 2005. None of those earlier events reached a verdict, and the number of victims and their identities remain disputed.
Reports give his full name as Antonius Rio Alex Bulo and say he was born in Sleman, in the Yogyakarta region, on May 2, 1978. The surname appears in different spellings, including Bullo, and Amnesty International wrote it as Alek. When he was arrested, police first knew him as "Toni" and later identified him as Rio. He was 23 when he was sentenced.
His early life before the killings is not on record beyond his birth and his age at sentencing.
The detikNews account of his case places his first killing in Bandung, West Java, in the period 1997 to 2000, with no exact date. A second, in Surabaya, East Java, and a third, in Semarang, Central Java, are placed in the same period. Merdeka's report likewise lists Surabaya and Semarang, and adds a failed attempt in Yogyakarta in which no one was harmed. Hukumonline, in a later review of the case, wrote that he killed four people in this series and gave no dates or places. Hands Off Cain, citing the news of the execution in 2008, wrote that between 1997 and 2001 he killed four people and then a fellow prisoner.
Reports differ on who the victims were and how many there were. JPNN wrote that the Purwokerto court found him responsible for at least four deaths, among them Jeje Suraji and others in Semarang and Bandung, and also called the prison death the "fifth". The detikNews account counts Bandung, Surabaya, Semarang and Baturaden as four. The victims of the earlier killings are not on record by name, and no verdict on them is on record.
The killing that ended his freedom took place on January 21, 2001, at Baturaden, in Banyumas regency, Central Java. The victim was Jeje Suraji, who was 40. He was arrested the same day, and police then connected him with a wanted suspect in West Java, East Java and the Yogyakarta region. The case was handled by the Banyumas district police and sent to the Purwokerto District Court.
The Purwokerto District Court sentenced him to death on May 14, 2001, according to detikNews. Hands Off Cain also gives May 2001. VIVAnews, Merdeka and Hukumonline give 2001, while an Amnesty International appeal issued before the execution gives 2002. The exact wording of the verdict is not on record.
He appealed to the Central Java High Court, and the appeal failed. His cassation to the Supreme Court also failed. According to detikNews, President Megawati Soekarnoputri rejected his clemency petition in a presidential decision, No. 16/G/2004, dated July 29, 2004; Hands Off Cain also dates the refusal to 2004, while Amnesty's 2008 appeal said it was rejected in 2007. In April 2008 the Supreme Court rejected his request for a case review, reported Hands Off Cain; VIVAnews says his appeals, up to judicial review, had all been refused.
He was first held at Kedungpane prison in Semarang. Merdeka reports that he was moved to Nusakambangan prison island in August 2004, and detikNews names Permisan prison on the island.
On May 2, 2005, a fellow prisoner at Permisan, Iwan Zulkarnaen, died, and police said Rio was responsible. The victim was serving a 16-year sentence in a corruption case. According to JPNN and Merdeka, police said Rio told them he acted after feeling insulted in a dispute in the cell; Merdeka adds that police were still checking whether that account was true. VIVAnews and Hukumonline both describe the death as the fifth in the series.
The Attorney General's Office was reported to be undecided on a trial. Its spokesperson at the time said the file was being prepared, and one official argued that he could not receive a heavier sentence than death and that a new trial was therefore unnecessary; another official cited Articles 65 and 487 of the Criminal Code and said the case had to be heard, with the sentence matched to the earlier one. Criminal law experts quoted by JPNN also disagreed. Whether the case was ever brought to court is not on record.
On August 4, 2008, he was held in an isolation cell at Purwokerto prison, after being moved from Pasir Putih prison on Nusakambangan, JPNN reported on August 5. Three doctors examined him that day and found him healthy and calm. The prison warden said guards checked the cell about every ten minutes and that he prayed at night.
According to his lawyer, Pranoto, in an interview with VIVAnews, he asked to see his wife and child, which was arranged, and asked that his belongings in the prison be given to inmates who behaved well. His lawyer said he appeared calm and mentally ready.
He was executed on the night of August 7, 2008, at about 10:30 p.m., JPNN reported, though the Merdeka report gives August 8. Hundreds of police were deployed, and hundreds of residents gathered outside the prison from the afternoon. Hands Off Cain, which dated its report August 7, wrote that the execution took place overnight in Banyumas and that international human rights groups had called for it to be halted. A prosecutor's office official in Central Java confirmed it.
JPNN, in a report on the series of executions that month, counted him among the people the prosecutors had put to death in under two months, following the executions of Sumiarsih, Sugeng, Ahmad Suradji and Maulana Yusuf.
The number of victims differs by source: four in the series before the prison death, according to Hands Off Cain, Hukumonline and Merdeka; four including Baturaden, according to detikNews; at least four with the prison death as a fifth, according to JPNN. Only the Baturaden killing reached a verdict. The dates of the earlier killings and the identities of the victims in Bandung, Surabaya and Semarang are not on record. The Yogyakarta attempt appears only in Merdeka and detikNews. The year of the death sentence is 2001 in most reports and 2002 in Amnesty's appeal. The date of the clemency refusal is given as 2004 in detikNews and Hands Off Cain, and as 2007 by Amnesty.
May 2, 1978: born in Sleman, according to Merdeka and Hukumonline.
1997 to 2000: killings attributed to him in Bandung, Surabaya and Semarang.
January 21, 2001: killing of Jeje Suraji at Baturaden; arrest the same day.
May 14, 2001: death sentence, Purwokerto District Court.
July 29, 2004: clemency refused by presidential decision.
August 2004: moved to Nusakambangan.
May 2, 2005: death of a fellow prisoner at Permisan prison; police said he was responsible.
April 2008: Supreme Court rejects judicial review.
August 4, 2008: held in isolation at Purwokerto.
August 7, 2008: executed, according to most reports; Merdeka gives August 8.