Rights commission wants Marsinah case reopened<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The National Commission on Human Rights urged
\nthe police yesterday to reopen the file on the murder of labor
\nactivist Marsinah following the high court decision to acquit a
\nman earlier thought to have masterminded the killing.<\/p>\n
The commission's Secretary-General, Baharuddin Lopa, said the
\npolice should reopen the Marsinah case file in order to find the
\nmurderer.<\/p>\n
The Surabaya High Court last month overturned the guilty
\nverdict meted out by a district court to Judi Susanto, the owner
\nof the watchmaking company where Marsinah was working at the time
\nof her brutal demise.<\/p>\n
Her torture and murder in May last year sparked an outcry from
\nlabor and human rights activists. The entire legal process, from
\narrest and interrogation to the subsequent trial of Judi and
\neight of his staff, all of whom were charged with responsibility
\nfor her killing, was wrought with controversy.<\/p>\n
All nine were convicted for conspiracy, with Judi receiving
\nthe stiffest penalty of 17 years in jail for masterminding the
\nmurder. Ironically, as Judi went free due to the acquittal, the
\nsame court upheld the guilty verdict against another defendant,
\nYudi Astono, and reaffirmed his four-year jail term.<\/p>\n
Speaking during a law seminar, Lopa yesterday said that he was
\nsure that Judi, as well as the other defendants, were victims of
\na frame-up designed to make them take the rap for the murder
\ncommitted by others.<\/p>\n
Loebby Loqman, a professor of criminal law from the University
\nof Indonesia, suggested that police search for her actual killers
\ninstead of wasting time looking for more evidence to support the
\nallegations against Judi.<\/p>\n
\"He has been released, which means that there must be somebody
\nelse who committed the murder,\" Loebby said.<\/p>\n
The two men made the remarks in a seminar organized by the
\nForum Keadilan biweekly and the Indonesian Judges' Association
\n(Ikahi).<\/p>\n
The National Commission of Human Rights, responding to
\nrequests from the defendants' lawyers, sent a team to investigate
\nallegations of torture and human rights abuses by the police and
\nthe military in extracting incriminating statements from them.<\/p>\n
The commission came up with a report saying that there were
\nindications that the alleged actions did take place and urged the
\nconcerned authorities to respond to the report. The team, which
\nwas led by Lopa, suggested the possibility that the murder was
\ncommitted by people other than the defendants.<\/p>\n
He said he was not happy with the police response that the
\ncommission should conduct the investigation itself.<\/p>\n
\"The human rights commission members are not investigators. If
\nthe commission carries out an investigation, what is the use of
\npolice and prosecutors?\" Lopa, a former prosecutor, asked.<\/p>\n
Lopa went public yesterday with some of the commission's
\nfindings, which had not been disclosed previously.<\/p>\n
During its inquiry, the commission determined that Judi had
\nbeen tortured and that from the beginning of the investigation,
\nthe police had \"hidden\" Judi's two housemaids, who acted as the
\nkey witnesses in the case, Lopa said. It was the maids who
\ntestified that Judi had led a meeting in the house to plan the
\nmurder of Marsinah.<\/p>\n
\"What was the use of hiding them?\" Lopa said.<\/p>\n
Another irregularity found by the commission was the fact that
\nMarsinah's clothes had been burned. \"Why did they burn them?\" he
\nasked, without speculating openly about who had burned the
\nclothes.<\/p>\n
The commission also discovered problems with the visum et
\nrepertum autopsy document.<\/p>\n
Lopa said that altogether the commission found seven pieces of
\nevidence to back its conclusion that Marsinah was killed by a
\nperson or persons other than the defendants.<\/p>\n
Marsinah, a high school graduate, was actively involved in a
\nseries of protests, demanding improvement in working conditions
\nat the company, including a raise in the workers' daily wages
\nfrom Rp 1,700 to Rp 2,250.<\/p>\n
The deceased activist was granted a posthumous Yap Thiam Hien
\nhuman rights award from the Foundation for the Human Rights Study
\nCenter last year for her struggle for labor rights.<\/p>\n
This year's award will be presented to Judi's lawyer,
\nTrimoelya D. Soerjadi, on Saturday. (sim)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/rights-commission-wants-marsinah-case-reopened-1447893297",
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