Arabic version: الحكم بالسجن المؤبد على رجلين في قضية مقتل غاتلواك
According to ABC News, Koang Wuordol, 25, and Guandong Guandong, 24, have been sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of 19-year-old Yiel Deng Gatluak outside Alice Springs on New Year’s Day 2024. A Northern Territory Supreme Court jury found both men guilty of murder in May after more than five weeks of evidence.
Justice Jenny Blokland imposed the mandatory minimum sentence of life imprisonment, with non-parole periods of 20 years. The court heard Gatluak was assaulted after being driven in a Ford Ranger to Undoolya Road, about 10 kilometres east of Alice Springs, in the early hours of New Year’s Day. He was later found dead there.
Video shown to jurors captured parts of the events and was described by Justice Blokland as “brutal”, “ugly” and “distressing”. She said Wuordol inflicted most of the violence while Guandong filmed the attack and made “disturbing commentary”. The judge said one or more offenders urinated on or near Gatluak’s body as he lay on the road. She said the conduct was “callous and cruel” and that filming his suffering and other humiliating acts magnified the gravity of the offending.
Justice Blokland said there was no intention to kill, but Wuordol and Guandong intended to inflict serious harm. She found Guandong’s moral culpability was lower than Wuordol’s because he inflicted less physical harm, though only marginally so. The judge said Gatluak likely survived for several hours after the beating, but his brain function would have deteriorated and he was unlikely to have been capable of meaningful movement.
A co-accused who was 17 at the time, and cannot be named, was acquitted of murder and manslaughter but convicted of committing a violent act causing death. He received a four-year prison sentence, with the remaining term suspended after more than two-and-a-half years on remand. His 18-month operational period includes supervision, weekly reporting, drug testing if directed, and possible electronic monitoring and curfew conditions. Gatluak’s family said their loss remained “ongoing and deeply felt in our everyday lives”.
