Defendant claims being terrorized

YOGYAKARTA (JP): The sole defendant in a journalist's murder, Dwi Sumaji, revealed yesterday that police had terrorized him into confessing.

Sumaji, alias Iwik, a driver for a local advertisement agency, told the Bantul District Court that police threatened to shoot him in the feet and rip off his toenails if he continued to deny killing Muhammad Fuad Syafruddin, better known as Udin, last year.

The defendant was refuting the earlier testimony of a witness, First Lt. Hadi Prayitno, who told the court that Sumaji made his confession during legal questioning procedures.

"Iwik pleaded guilty during the questioning," Hadi had told the court. "He said he had beaten Udin on Aug. 13, 1996."

When Sumaji objected to Hadi's testimony, he was booed by some people in the public gallery, many of whom were muscular and sported crew cuts.

Later, the group of unidentified men turned their verbal attack on Sumaji's team of lawyers, shouting and yelling at them.

"Let's kill the foolish lawyers," they jeered. "We'd better kidnap them after this hearing."

The presiding judge, Endang Sri Murwati, was forced to reprimand the boisterous group several times.

The court also heard yesterday testimony from another witness, Sgt. Maj. Eddy Wuryanto, who said he had known Sumaji well before his arrest.

"It's not true, therefore, that I rigged Sumaji's arrest," he said.

Eddy rejected the statement of another witness, Diharjo Purboko, who said that the police officer had revealed to him a plot to arrest Sumaji and force him to plead guilty.

The same court found Eddy guilty of throwing a sample of Fuad's blood into the ocean for superstitious reasons. (23/amd)