Flores Priest to Face Firing Squad for Murders of Lover and Children

The Jakarta Globe, February 12, 2014.


Jakarta. A two-decade-long tragedy born of shame in East Nusa Tenggara took another step toward finality on Tuesday after the Supreme Court imposed the death penalty on a former Catholic priest for the murders of his lover, a former nun, and their two newborn children.

“I’m not pro capital punishment, but for things like this we need deterrence so that people will not carry out these murders, which are rampant everywhere now,” Supreme Court justice Gayus Lumbuun said on Tuesday. “This verdict is necessary and must be carried out.”

Herman Jumat Masan, 45, was first found guilty of the murders of Yosephine Kerodok Payong — also known as Mery Grace — and their two children at Maumere District Court in August, 2013. The prosecutor appealed the case to the provincial Kupang High Court, which confirmed the life sentence. The Supreme Court, however, sided with the prosecutor’s second appeal, and said that Herman should face the firing squad.

The prosecution told the court that Herman and Yosephine first met in 1995 in the remote town of Hokeng in eastern Flores. Herman plied his trade as a local priest there while Yosephine studied theology at the nearby Ledalero Catholics Philosophy Institute. Two years later, Herman was sent to Lela, a community on Flores 100 kilometers to the west of Hokeng. Yosephine followed him there and began working at the local hospital. Indonesian news magazine Tempo reported that the refectory where Herman worked was just 100 meters from Yosephine’s hospital.

It was not clear at what point the two became intimate, although their simultaneous transfer to Lela might indicate that some sort of relationship had developed while they both lived in Hokeng.

Neither of the two earlier courts nor the Supreme Court was, however, in any doubt of Herman’s responsibility for what followed.

Yosephine became pregnant in 1998 and gave birth in Herman’s room in 1999. The prosecutor proved beyond reasonable doubt that the couple had smothered the newborn and buried the body in front of Herman’s refectory out of shame that their illicit relationship could be discovered.

They grew flowers over the grave, the court heard.

Yosephine fell pregnant again in 2002 and Herman was convicted of killing the second child as well. This time, however, Yosephine suffered a hemorrhage during childbirth and she died nine days later. Prosecutors said Herman had denied her the medical care that would have saved her life. The priest then buried the former nun alongside her two dead children, the court heard.

The bodies lay hidden there for 10 years until Herman confided in his new lover, a woman named Sofi. She informed a family member of Yosephine’s who immediately reported the information to the local police. Officers exhumed the remains of Yosephine and her two infant sons and the prosecution began.

Herman will be able to file for a judicial review of the Supreme Court decision in an attempt to have his death sentence commuted. Should any appeal for clemency be unsuccessful, Herman will be informed of his execution 72 hours before he is marched out to a remote location, tied to a post and shot.



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