Eurico transferred to Salemba penitentiary

Eurico transferred to Salemba penitentiary

JAKARTA (JP): While the trial on Eurico Guterres' alleged role
in last month's incident in Atambua, East Nusa Tenggara, is
approaching, prosecutors transferred on Monday the pro-Indonesia
East Timorese militia leader from his safe house at the city
police headquarters to the Salemba penitentiary in Central
Jakarta.

Newly installed spokesman to the Attorney General's Office
Muljohardjo said the prosecutors had put Eurico in the
penitentiary for 20 days, pending the trial on his alleged role
in inciting others to repossess firearms which had earlier been
seized by police officers.

"Eurico Guterres was transferred to Salemba penitentiary prior
to the trial, the date of which has yet to be set," Muljohardjo
told journalists at his office.

Muljohardjo was speaking after head of the Atambua
Prosecutor's Office Soetarso announced that the dossiers prepared
by the National Police detectives was considered complete.

However, Muljohardjo said there was yet a decision on when the
preliminary hearing would be held and which court the dossiers on
Eurico would be submitted to.

Eurico was arrested on Oct. 4 this year at a hotel room in
Central Jakarta for his alleged role in ordering his followers to
repossess arms which had been handed over to the authorities in
Atambua on Sept. 24.

Eurico was also named a suspect by the Attorney General's
Office in the alleged human rights abuses in East Timor last
year.

Attorney General Marzuki Darusman said on Monday his office
was attempting to get an approval from the Supreme Court to hold
Eurico's trial in Jakarta, instead of in Atambua where the
alleged crime took place.

He said the effort was in line with the request of the head of
the Atambua Prosecutor's Office, Soetarso, who had received the
dossiers on Eurico, from the police, as a suspect in the firearms
repossession case.

"Moreover, the transfer will smooth the way for the
prosecution since the suspect is already in Jakarta and the
Supreme Court has given permission to reopen the trial on Eurico
as a defendant for possessing illegal weapons," Marzuki told
journalists.

Eurico has earlier been exonerated from all charges of
possessing illegal weapons in the Atambua District Court's
pretrial motion.

Eurico protested the detention saying the police had ignored a
court's decision which had ordered the police to release him as
he had been a victim of a wrongful arrest.

"I'm very disappointed. The police don't respect the court,"
Eurico told reporters as he was escorted to the police car from
his safe house.

The South Jakarta District Court ordered the police on Oct. 23
to release Eurico after he filed a lawsuit against the police
saying the police had failed to produce a warrant when they
arrested him.

After the arrest, Eurico was detained at the National Police
Headquarters.

He was then placed under house arrest and was transferred to
the safe house on Oct. 21 after the police had finished
questioning him.

Eurico had not been released from the safe house even after
the court ordered for his release because the paper work on his
release had not been completed, Muljohardjo said.

Eurico had requested for police protection after the court
ordered for his release since he felt unsafe as there were some
parties who wanted him dead. (jaw/bby)