Defendants deny being drunk during Tampubolon murder

Defendants deny being drunk during Tampubolon murder

JAKARTA (JP): The four alleged killers of T.M.F. Tampubolon
admitted before the East Jakarta District Court yesterday that
they drank some alcoholic beverages before attacking the army
general, but they were not drunk.

Tampubolon, who was in civilian clothes, passing the Cipinang
area in East Jakarta on April 5, was stabbed to death by one of
the defendants after a brief quarrel. He died one hour later in
an East Jakarta hospital.

The four defendants are Hendrik Setyawan, 25, Rusdi Abdul
Rahman, 24, Lukman Achmad, 30, and Risdiyanto, 25, who each
testified in the hearings for the others today.

In each session the panel of judges remained the same but the
team of prosecutors was replaced.

Not drunk

During the trial of Risdiyanto, Rusdi testified that on that
day, he met the other three defendants at a place in Cipinang
several hundred meters from the crime site.

He said that all of them talked while drinking beer, Vodka,
and locally-made liquor. Rusdi said he had no idea where the
drinks came from.

Responding to Prosecutor Saleh Abdurrahman's question, all the
defendants said that they were neither drunk nor losing control
of their balance while on their way to a nearby billiard center
afterwards.

They also said they could play the game normally.

The four told the court one of them shouted at Tampubolon's
passing car as it nearly hit Hendrik on their way to a food stall
later.

"Use your horn, Sir," Hendrik shouted as quoted by Rusdi
before the session.

But the defendants also said they did not try to stop the
car.

As they were sitting in the stall, Lukman saw a man
approaching. The man, who later turned out to be Tampubolon, the
car driver, shouted at Lukman "You, here."

The man gripped Hendrik by the shirt collar and they soon
began a quarrel. Hendrik stabbed Tampubolon but he told the court
he could not remember how many times or in which part of the
victim's body.

According to the postmortem, Tampubolon died later of 11 stab
wounds to his chest, stomach, back and hands.

The presiding judge adjourned the trial until Thursday. (03)