Appeal in Marsinah case possible: Chief Justice

JAKARTA (JP): Chief Justice Soerjono says prosecutors may go to the Supreme Court if they wish to appeal the recent release of the main suspect in the highly controversial murder of labor activist Marsinah.

The East Java high court last month cleared Judi Susanto of all charges and released him from prison, saying that he did not mastermind Marsinah's murder last year as the Surabaya district court had charged.

The district court sentenced Judi, Marsinah's boss and owner of watch factory PT Catur Putra Surya, to 17 years imprisonment.

"The Supreme Court will consider the prosecutors' appeal if they can prove that the East Java high court's verdict was wrong," Soerjono said here Friday night.

He added that he could not confirm an appeal from the prosecutors because the Supreme Court had not received the dossiers.

Soerjono did not agree with the demands of legal activists wanting the release of the other eight people already convicted in the same case because of the court's recent decision.

Activists from the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute (YLBHI) also argue that no one could appeal to the Supreme Court against a defendant who has been cleared of all charges.

The Marsinah case was widely reported by both national and international media last year when she was found dead after leading a workers' strike at PT Catur Putra Surya, in Sidoarjo, East Java.

Her badly tortured body was later found on May 9, 1993, in an abandoned shack near Nganjuk in East Java.

The trials of the nine people in the murder case was fraught with controversy from the beginning, including the way they were arrested. All nine pleaded innocent and said they were victims of a frame-up.(imn)