Police question 26 in reopened Marsinah murder investigation<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): East Java police have questioned 26 people in
\nthe course of their reinvestigation into the 1993 murder of labor
\nactivist Marsinah, Antara has reported.<\/p>\n
\"There are old witnesses, there are new witnesses. Among the
\nnew witnesses are those who claimed to have met Marsinah at 9.30
\np.m (which was) after Marsinah was declared dead,\" said Col.
\nSoeroto, the chief of the provincial police detective department,
\nin Surabaya yesterday.<\/p>\n
Accompanied by police spokesman Lt. Col. Sutrisno T.S.,
\nSoeroto said it would be up to the regional military police to
\nquestion potential witnesses from among the Armed Forces.<\/p>\n
\"We are just pointing out that this or that person might be
\ninvolved, it would be up to the regional military police to
\nhandle them. We don't have any authority,\" he said.<\/p>\n
He claimed, however, to have the support of the National
\nPolice headquarters as well as the Brawijaya Military Command,
\noverseeing East Java, in his effort to reinvestigate the murder.
\nHe did not say when the case was reopened<\/p>\n
East Java Police chief Maj. Gen. Moch. Dayat has admitted the
\npossible involvement of some military personnel in the murder.<\/p>\n
Last September, to many people's dismay, police temporarily
\nclosed their investigation into the Marsinah murder after their
\nlast lead, a DNA test, failed because the two-year-old blood
\nsample had been contaminated.<\/p>\n
The DNA test was the last and probably only lead the police
\nhad to sustain their investigation into the murder which had
\nstirred public outcry both at home and abroad.<\/p>\n
In 1994 the Supreme Court acquitted nine people whom the
\nSurabaya District Court had convicted of Marsinah's murder,
\nruling that the trials were inconclusive, and that much of the
\nevidence was extracted from the suspects by force.<\/p>\n
Marsinah was found dead after organizing a workers' strike at
\nPT Catur Putra Surya, a watch manufacturer in Sidoarjo, East
\nJava. Her badly mutilated body was found on May 9, 1993, in an
\nabandoned shack near Nganjuk in East Java.<\/p>\n
Human rights activist Maj. Gen. (ret) Koesparmono Irsan said
\nrecently that cases which were hard to break, such as the murders
\nof journalist Fuad Muhammad Syafruddin and Marsinah and the
\nshooting of four Trisakti University students, indicated the
\ninvolvement of military officers. (swe)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/police-question-26-in-reopened-marsinah-murder-investigation-1447893297",
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