Adiguna probe complete, case to be filed Friday
Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Police have wrapped up their investigation into the murder of waiter Yohannes Berchmans Haerudy Natong alias Rudy and will submit Adiguna Sutowo's case file to the prosecutor's office on Friday.
"We will submit the case file tomorrow as we have sufficient evidence and witnesses to support our case against Adiguna," Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Firman Gani said here on Thursday.
Firman said Adiguna, a brother of Ponco Sutowo, the owner of the Hotel Hilton, where the murder took place on Jan. 1, would be charged with murder, illegal gun possession and drug abuse.
Adiguna, meanwhile, continues to deny his role in the fatal shooting despite the damaging testimonies of close female companion Novia "Tinul" Herdiana and several other witnesses.
Meanwhile, a group of legislators visited the city police headquarters on Thursday to assist with the investigation.
Melchias Makus Mekeng, a legislator from East Nusa Tenggara, said they had approached the city police chief with the intention of monitoring the legal process of the case.
"We come here not to intervene in police work, but as members of society who want to see the law enforced in the shooting case. We want the police to refrain from taking sides with the wealthy," said Melchias.
Students from Bung Karno University, where Rudy was registered as a student, and lawyers had earlier met with Gani to press for a fair and thorough investigation.
Rudy, a trainee waiter at the Hilton hotel's Fluid Club, was shot to death after he requested that Tinul either pay in cash or hand over a valid credit card after her two credit cards were rejected.
Early in the investigation, Firman said police needed at least two months to complete Adiguna's case file amid rumors that he was meeting Ponco Sutowo to find a way to release the suspect.
The rumors even went so far as to suggest that a scenario had been devised in which another person would confess to the murder.
However, constant media coverage from the start of the investigation and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's appeal for a thorough and fair investigation have apparently prompted the police to speed up the process.
Meanwhile, Tinul's lawyer has demanded that the police withdraw charges against her as Tinul had eventually spoken up.
"We have asked the police to change Tinul's status from suspect to witness as she told them the truth," said Djufri Taufik.
Tinul had admitted that she saw Adiguna shoot Rudy at 3:30 a.m., after earlier insisting that she had left the scene before that time.
She confessed to witnessing the murder only after the police named her a suspect for giving false information under oath and threatened to detain her. Four other witnesses have testified to seeing Adiguna pull the trigger.