Police should get full autonomy in Marsinah case<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): As police are expressing confidence that some
\nanswers may be in sight in the reopened investigation into the
\nmurder of labor activist Marsinah, a legal expert has called for
\nthe enquiry to be carried out with greater professionalism and
\nthat it be granted complete independence.<\/p>\n
Satjipto Rahardjo, a lecturer at Diponegoro University in
\nSemarang, Central Java, said there was a danger that the fresh
\ninvestigation into Marsinah's murder would flounder unless police
\nwere granted \"full autonomy\" and managed to pursue the culprits
\nin a \"really professional\" manner.<\/p>\n
Satjipto, who is also a staff lecturer at the Semarang Police
\nAcademy, said it was the absence of those two factors that had
\ncreated \"complications\" in the previous investigation, with less
\nthan optimal results.<\/p>\n
The police needed to learn from the mistakes made in the
\nprevious investigation, Satjipto said on Monday, as quoted by
\nAntara. \"In order to get good results, the new investigation
\nshould refer back to the first,\" he said.<\/p>\n
\"All parties should be willing to gracefully admit it, if any
\nmembers of theirs are eventually found to be involved in the
\ncase,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Satjipto did not explain what he meant by the terms \"members\"
\nand \"parties\".<\/p>\n
Both the East Java police and the national police have
\nannounced separately during the past week that they have new
\nsuspects in the case and that the solution to the mystery of who
\nkilled Marsinah is in sight.<\/p>\n
The authorities acknowledged that the \"new suspects\" were not
\nnecessarily different from the nine people convicted after the
\nfirst investigation and later exonerated by the Supreme Court on
\nthe ground of insufficient evidence. The Supreme Court's decision
\nprompted the police to launch a fresh investigation into the
\nmurder.<\/p>\n
East Java Police Chief Maj. Gen. Roesmanhadi told reporters
\nlast week that his force had identified a number of people
\nsuspected of being involved in the 1993 murder of Marsinah.<\/p>\n
It was also Roesmanhadi who disclosed earlier this month that
\nthe police had discovered blood traces, identified as belonging
\nto Marsinah, in the house of Yudi Susanto. The latter was among
\nthe nine initial suspects.<\/p>\n
The announcement came as legal experts argued that, by law,
\nYudi could not be tried for an offense of which he had already
\nonce been acquitted.<\/p>\n
The owner of PT Catur Putra Surya, the watchmaking company in
\nSidoarjo where Marsinah worked, was found guilty by the lower
\ncourt of masterminding the murder.<\/p>\n
In Jakarta, director of the crime investigation section at
\nnational police headquarters, Brig. Gen. Rusdihardjo, said on
\nMonday that the number of the new suspects may be two or three.<\/p>\n
He did not name the suspects, however. \"We wish to adhere to
\nthe principle of the presumption of innocence,\" he said. \"We're
\nstill studying the case...we can't yet name them as suspects
\nyet,\" he added.<\/p>\n
Since the investigation was reopened last month, police have
\nquestioned four Sidoarjo military officers who were involved in
\nthe industrial dispute going on between Yudi and his employees at
\nthe time of the murder.<\/p>\n
So far the investigation has failed to find any evidence
\nconnecting the officers with the murder. (swe)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/police-should-get-full-autonomy-in-marsinah-case-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}