150 lawyers to sue Noegroho over recent unlawful arrest

JAKARTA (JP): Around 150 lawyers are to file a pretrial lawsuit at the South Jakarta District Court on Monday against Jakarta Police chief Maj. Gen. Noegroho Djadjoesman over the recent unlawful arrest of their colleague, Petrus Bala Pattyona.

Pascalis Pieter, one of the 150 lawyers, said on Saturday that the lawyers were from various law firms and organizations, including the Indonesian Advocate Association (AAI), the Indonesian Legal Aid Association (PBHI) and the Jakarta Legal Aid Institution (LBH Jakarta).

"The arrest was unlawful since the police officers did not possess sufficient initial evidence," said Pascalis, adding that the arrest violated Article 17 of the Law on Criminal Code Procedures.

Petrus, a lawyer to the father of drug case suspect Zarina Mirafsur, was arrested last Tuesday by plainclothes detectives from the city police after a hearing of a pretrial lawsuit filed by his client, Mirafsur Khan.

Mirafsur filed a lawsuit at the court, saying the city police's arrest of his daughter at a hotel in West Jakarta last November was unlawful. He lost the case on Friday after the court decided to favor the police, saying that the police had followed all necessary procedures.

Petrus was accused last Tuesday by the city police of submitting a photocopied fake letter to judge I Gde Putra Yadnya during the trial.

In the one-page document, said to be signed by Zarina's boyfriend, Ahian Santoso, alias Yeye, the latter stated that the drugs found in the room where they were arrested were his, not Zarina's.

Police then questioned Mirafsur's three other lawyers, namely Ali mazi, Koresh Tambunan and Pieter Pascalis. They were, however, released a few hours later following questioning.

According to Petrus' colleagues, the police had no right to make such an arrest since the original document was still in the possession of Zarina's family.

The lawyers also rejected Noegroho's request last Wednesday to hand over the original document to him, saying it was their task to protect their client's document.

Pascalis said the arrest insulted the lawyers' profession.

"The arrest was made while Petrus was providing legal advise to his client, Mirafsur," he said.

He also said the city police had no authority to say that the document was fake.

"Even the court has yet to stipulate it as a fake document," he said.

Col. Alex Bambang Riatmodjo, chief of Jakarta Police detectives said last Tuesday that the photocopied document presented by Petrus to the court was fake and based on another letter written by Yeye to his wife.

In the letter, Yeye, who was arrested by police detectives on Nov. 11 with Zarina at a hotel room in West Jakarta with a few grams of shabu-shabu (crystal methamphetamine) and its accessories, told his wife that Zarina's lawyers had forged the letter.

According to officer Alex, Yeye repeatedly insisted the drugs seized by the city police were Zarina's.

The officer, therefore, insisted that the arrest was lawful since Petrus was caught red-handed carrying a photocopy of the fake letter, as based on Article 18 (2) of the Law on Criminal Code Procedures. (asa)