Adiguna rejects allegations

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Businessman Adiguna Sutowo, the only suspect for the murder of Hilton Hotel barman Johannes Berchmans Herudy Natong, denied any role in his killing on Thursday.

"I did not shoot Rudy," he said during his trial at the Central Jakarta District Court on Thursday.

Several key witnesses had told the court earlier that they saw Adiguna, the youngest brother of Hilton co-owner Ponco Sutowo, shoot and kill Johannes, nicknamed Rudy, with a .22-caliber revolver in the Hilton's Fluid Bar on Jan. 1.

Adiguna also denied ever owning a silver Smith And Wesson airlite pistol, which key witness Werner "Wewen" Saferna handed over to police authorities days after the shooting, arguing that his weapon of choice was a black colt handgun.

"At the time I was arrested, the gun's license had already expired. I guess that's why police kept on asking me about illegal gun possession. But, they didn't ask me anything about the murder," said the 46-year-old man.

He also told the panel of three judges, presided by Lilik Muryadi, that he had no idea where the 19 bullets taken from his hotel room came from.

Adiguna, who earlier claimed he had handled firearms since high school, said he had heard the sound of an explosion while he was in the bar but could not recognize whether it was a gun or a balloon bursting.

When asked by judges about the bloodstains on hotel towels of Room 1564, where he was staying on New Year's Eve, he said that it came from a nosebleed he had suffered.

"On New Year's Eve, my nose was bleeding since dinner, so I used the towels to wipe the blood running down my nose," he said, adding that he used them when he returned to his room early morning of Jan. 1 after searching for his son in the Fluid Bar and Lounge at the Hilton Hotel.

Adiguna, however, admitted that he sat on the counter of the bar for about five minutes, but denied he saw anyone getting hurt.

"Eighty percent of my focus was on finding my kid, that's why I sat on the counter to find higher place to see my son among the crowd. I didn't notice anyone else around the counter," he told chief prosecutor Andi Herman.

However, Adiguna then gave conflicting statements about how he helped carry the victim to the hotel clinic. When asked by judge Agus Subroto, he first said that he had never touched Rudy's body. He had only told a group of people who were carrying Rudy to go to the hotel clinic instead of calling an ambulance, he said.

But, when asked by another judge, Mulyani, he said that he held Rudy's leg, when he helped carry the victim toward the hotel's clinic along with other people he did not recognize.

"Yes, I held his leg but not in the way that I actually carried him. It was because I wanted to show that I was actively helping a wounded man. When they arrived in front of the clinic, I left them and went straight to my room," he said.

When confronted with witnesses testimonies saying that he helped carry Rudy by holding the victim's neck, he rejected them.

"The witnesses' testimonies are not true," he said.

Chief prosecutor Andi Herman said his team was optimistic that he could prove the crime.

"It is the defendant's right either to confirm or to deny witnesses' testimonies, but we have sufficient evidence to prove that he is guilty," Andi said. (006)