An Indonesian court has sentenced 3 people who shot and killed a fellow Australian in Bali

Denpasar, Indonesia — A court in the Indonesian resort island of Bali on Monday sentenced three Australian citizens who fatally shot a fellow Australian citizen in June, claiming they were paid by an unidentified man.

Mevlut Koskun, Paya i Middlemore Tupou and Darcy Jensen are accused of shooting and killing 32-year-old Zivan Radmanovic from Melbourne. A second man, Sanar Ghanim, 34, was shot and survived the attack.

Koskun, 22, and Tupou, 27, were sentenced to 16 years in prison at the Denpasar District Court, while Jensen, 24, was sentenced to 12 years. Coskun and Tupou argued that the shooting death was not intentional and occurred in the confusion of the night.

Radmanovic was in Bali to celebrate the birthdays of his wife, Jazmin Gourdias’ sister, and his sister’s partner, Ghanim. Investigators found Radmanovic suffering from three gunshot wounds and blunt force trauma.

Prosecutors said Jensen orchestrated the attack while the other two carried out the attack. Jensen was caught trying to leave the country at Jakarta’s Soekarno Hatta Airport in June. Koskun and Tupau were arrested in Singapore and Cambodia with the help of Interpol.

During the trial, which began in October, the three men said they were offered money to travel to Bali and intimidated Ganim into repaying the loan. She said she declined to identify the offer from the Australian man because she feared for the safety of her families.

Investigators testified that the group received instructions from “Mr. X,” whose identity has never been determined. The court accepted that the men had acted “for the payment of a promise”.

Prosecutors had asked the court to sentence Coskun and Tupo to 18 years in prison and Jensen to 17 years.

While the three-judge panel said the accused had caused “deep trauma” to the families of the two victims, President Wayan Surta said the defendants had no prior criminal records and had been cooperative throughout the investigation and trial.

“They are still young and have a chance to improve themselves in the future,” he said, adding that the punishment was “not intended to take revenge or degrade their dignity, but as a preventive measure so that such acts do not happen again.”

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Ninek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia contributed to this report.