A year has passed slowly for Devi Athok, an Indonesian man whose two teenage daughters died in a crush of fans at a soccer stadium in East Java in October 2022 after police fired tear gas, setting off a panicked run for the exits that left 135 people dead.
In the year since the incident, Indonesia has convicted five of six suspects who were charged with negligence leading to the deaths of 135 people. Investigations have been conducted both by police and an independent team set up by Indonesian President Joko Widodo.
Athok said there have been irregularities in the narrative of what happened and that he has experienced intimidation since he started speaking out about the deaths of his daughters. “I want to fight legally, seek justice for the death of my daughters. If you ask if I have sincerely accepted what happened, yes, I sincerely do. They are dead, they won’t come back. But under the law, I seek justice against the killer of my two daughters,” he added.