Army captain faces 18 months in prison

Army captain faces 18 months in prison

JAKARTA (JP): Military prosecutors are demanding that an Army
captain be imprisoned for 18 months for failing to report a plot
to kill a labor activist last year.

Captain Kusaeri, formerly chief of Porong Military Command, is
being tried in the military tribunal in Surabaya in connection
with the murder of Marsinah, a worker at a watchmaking company,
PT Citra Putra Surya, in Sidoarjo near Surabaya, in May last
year.

Col. Srihadi Rahayu, who is prosecuting the case, said
49-year-old Kusaeri knowingly or inadvertently failed to report
the murder plan to his superiors, both before and after it was
carried out. The prosecution dropped earlier charges that Kusaeri
was part of the plan.

The defendant is the only Army officer being tried in
connection with the murder, which became an international issue
last year when labor and human rights groups used it to showcase
the plight of Indonesian workers before the international
community.

Marsinah's badly mutilated body was found in an abandoned
shack in a forest in Nganjuk on May 9, only a few days after she
had led a workers' strike at the watchmaking company.

Nine people, including the company's director, his staff and
security guards, have already been convicted in connection with
the murder, thanks in part to Kusaeri's testimony.

The motive of the murder was never precisely determined in
court. The prosecution said she was killed because she may have
threatened the management saying she would go public with some
confidential information that could threaten the company's
business.

Retracted

Some of those convicted were summoned to testify in Kusaeri's
marathon trial, but they all used the opportunity to retract the
statements they gave to their military interrogators, saying the
statements were extracted through torture.

Rahayu urged the tribunal to ignore the fact that they had
retracted the statements, which incriminated themselves and
Kusaeri. She pleaded with Judge Col. Baruno to base his decision
on the written statement presented before the court rather than
oral testimony before the tribunal.

According to the prosecution, Kusaeri caught a ride on May 5
on a van belonging to the company. Marsinah was present at the
time. The defendant was also involved in a meeting of company
staff members on the same day during which he apparently heard
that they should "get rid" of Marsinah.

Kusaeri never denied that he was at the meeting, but insisted
that he took the words "get rid" to mean to expel the woman from
the company.

According to the prosecution, on May 11 Kusaeri approached the
company directors saying pointedly "how could you have done such
a thing to her?" Yet the defendant never reported anything about
this to his superiors.

"His action has tainted the image of the Armed Forces," Rahayu
said, adding however that Kusaeri had a distinct military career
for 16 years, and received merit awards for the three times he
served in East Timor and one for service in Irian Jaya. (emb)