Autopsies help solve mysterious deaths

Autopsies help solve mysterious deaths

JAKARTA (JP): Death often comes suddenly and can be mysterious
if the cause is not known. In criminal cases, an autopsy can be
performed to help solve the puzzle. But is it a mandatory for law
enforcers to order an autopsy?

Not necessarily. At least, not for a suspect and key witness
in the case of fugitive Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, Sgt. Maj.
(ret.) Wiyono, who died last month while he was under police
custody.

City police spokesman Sr. Comr. Anton Bachrul Alam said an
autopsy is just a complementary attempt to seek evidence from the
dead victim and it is not necessarily the vital step.

"An autopsy is usually performed when police have suspicions
about an unnatural death," Anton said.

Forensic doctors might also be asked to perform an autopsy if
the police need scientific information on the cause of death, he
told The Jakarta Post.

For fatal traffic accident cases, it is not necessary for the
police to require an autopsy. The police usually ask the forensic
doctors to examine the dead bodies and the wounds that might have
caused death, as well as the causes of the wounds.

However, in homicide cases, it is essential for the police to
ask for an autopsy to obtain necessary data, such as the
estimated time of death and the possible causes of death.

As stipulated in Article 133 of the Criminal Code Procedure,
Anton said, the police as investigators were entitled to request
an autopsy, which could be carried out after notifying the
victim's next of kin.

"So it is wrong to say that the police can't have an autopsy
performed because the victim's family objects to the post mortem
examination," he said.

All costs for the autopsy are met by the state.

"As for the people, I think it's not the cost that matters.
They are normally worried about how the autopsy will be performed
and the result of the autopsy, whereby the body will shrink as
the organs are taken out of it," Anton said.

However, in the case of the sudden deaths of Attorney General
Baharuddin Lopa, Lt. Gen. Agus Wirahadikusumah and even Wiyono,
police did not react at all over prolonged public speculation
about their cause of death.

"I don't think it would be wise for me to comment on those
matters. They all died naturally of sickness. That's all I can
say," he said.

Official reports said the three died of heart failure.

According to noted forensic expert Abdul Mun'im Idries,
forensic doctors could only assist police in providing
supporting evidence and even the result of an autopsy could only
be used as preliminary clues that police detectives had to
correlate with other evidence.

He believed after an autopsy there were no signs of murder
that could escape detection.

He rejected speculation that a way of killing that could not
be detected in an autopsy had already been discovered.(emf)