Defense in Theys' murder trial says no witnesses saw slaying
Defense in Theys' murder trial says no witnesses saw slaying
Novan Iman Santosa and Yogita Tahilramani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Not a single eyewitness against nine suspects for the murder of
Papuan pro-independence leader Dortheys "Theys" Hiyo Eluay
witnessed the murder, defense lawyer Warsito Sanyoto said on
Tuesday.
Despite the lawyer's claim, the National Military Police
asserted that its team had built a strong case against the nine
suspects, all members of the Army Special Forces (Kopassus).
A total of 109 witnesses had been interviewed by the National
Military Police. Of those 109, 40 are military officers.
"Of all the witnesses, not a single eyewitness claims to have
witnessed the murder," Warsito told The Jakarta Post.
He added that there were witnesses who claimed to have
witnessed the kidnapping of Theys, but they could not positively
identify the kidnapper or kidnappers.
"One witness saw an unidentified man pushing the driver of
Theys, towards the car. But, who this man was, the witness cannot
say for sure," Warsito said.
Theys' driver, Aristoteles, remains missing and is presumed
dead.
Dossiers of the nine suspects were prepared by local police,
who were the first to initially handle and investigate this case,
before investigations were ultimately taken over by the National
Military Police.
A military probe concluded that the murder of Theys, a former
Golkar Party member, was not politically motivated.
The nine suspected Kopassus officers involved in the death
will be tried through a regular military tribunal next month,
since the case was not classified as a human rights violation,
but a criminal act."
The nine suspects face a maximum of 15 years in jail.
Three of the suspects are middle ranking officers: Lt. Col.
Hartomo, Maj. Doni Hutabarat and Capt. Rionaldo. The other six
are non-commissioned officers.
National Military Police chief, Maj. Gen. Sulaiman A.B.,
seemed confident on Monday that his team had built a strong case
against the nine Kopassus officers, saying that they had damning
testimony from several witnesses.
There was an eyewitness, Warsito said, who knew one of the
suspects, Capt. Rionaldo, personally, and met him on a daily
basis, but this eyewitness too, could not identify whether the
kidnapper was Rionaldo or not.
"All us lawyers were present when the photographs were being
shown to witnesses and, witnesses and suspects were confronted
with one another," Warsito said.
"If it was Rionaldo, this witness would have said, it's
Rionaldo, since they meet each other on a daily basis and this
person knows Rionaldo's face very well. The fact is, the witness
said that it was not Rionaldo."
When asked of the possibility that the eyewitness was afraid
that his life would be in danger if he admitted that Rionaldo
could be one of the alleged kidnappers, Warsito did not comment
on this.
He simply said that the team of lawyers were confident that
they could break the case of the military prosecution since it
was not only "weak, but it did not have the support of eyewitness
testimony."
"I am quite confident our team will win the case," Warsito
said.