Defendant retracts his retraction in Syafiuddin case

Defendant retracts his retraction in Syafiuddin case

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Confronted by a police investigator, an accomplice of Hutomo
"Tommy" Mandala Putra admitted at the South Jakarta District
Court that he had retracted his earlier statement as he had been
intimidated by the police during questioning.

Defendant Dody Hardjito told the hearing repeatedly that the
police had forced him to implicate Tommy in the murder of Supreme
Court Justice M. Syafiuddin Kartasasmita in July last year and in
the illegal possession of firearms found in a raid in Pondok
Indah, South Jakarta.

He had claimed that the police had hit him, stubbed a
cigarette on various parts of his body and had bit his right ear.

However, while presiding judge Tusani Djafri asked about the
scars, Dody said, "There is no scar, Your Honor, as I washed my
body with "pearl water" in the interrogation room (in the Jakarta
Police headquarters). The water made the scars disappear."

Visitors of the court laughed at hearing Dody's answer.

"I am telling you the truth, the water could cure scars. All
detainees at the headquarters said that," said Dody, trying to
convince the judges.

Finally, Dody admitted that the police did not torture him
after the court presented witness Capt. Joko Purwadi, the officer
who questioned Dody from Aug. 6 to Oct. 19 last year.

"There was no violence. The defendant was accompanied by his
lawyer during the questioning," Joko asserted.

Prosecutor Ismanto will present his sentence demand to the
court next week.

Dody, who is being tried for his alleged part in the murder of
Syafiuddin, was arrested on Aug. 6, last year following a raid on
a rented house in Pondok Indah. The police found several illegal
firearms and bullets, believed to have been used to shoot
Syafiuddin dead.

In the house Dody rented under Tommy's orders, the police also
found a map showing Syafiuddin's address and those of two other
justices, who had sentenced Tommy to an 18 month jail term for
graft in 2000.

Tommy is being tried separately for allegedly masterminding
the murder.