Parlindungan Siregar was 45 years old, lived in North Sumatra, and had been putting up with the same question every time he ran into his neighbor: why was he still single? 😐
Asgim Irianto, 60, a retired public official, repeated it to him over and over again. There had already been previous tensions between them, some as absurd as arguments over chickens wandering into the wrong yard. But in July 2024, something snapped. Siregar took a piece of heavy wood and went straight to Irianto’s house.
The man tried to escape into the street. He did not get far. Siregar caught up with him and struck him on the head, ending his life in front of neighbors, who ran to separate them too late. An Indonesian court found him guilty and sentenced him to 12 years in prison for the murder of his neighbor, while the case exposes something that carries more weight in his region than it seems: social pressure to marry by a certain age. 💀
