Execution of Kupang convicts imminent

JAKARTA (JP): Three men sentenced to death for murdering an entire family in 1989 will be executed soon. They were allowed to meet with their close relatives for the last time last weekend at a penitentiary in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara.

"The three men are still here. We're just waiting for the word from the Attorney General's Office in Jakarta," a staff member at the Penfui penitentiary, who requested anonymity, told The Jakarta Post by phone yesterday. The staffer said the penitentiary did not have the right to determine the execution date.

The three men, Dance Soru (28), Fredrik Soru (27) and Gerson Pandie (26) were sentenced to death by the Kupang District Court, in the capital of East Nusa Tenggara, for one of the most brutal murder cases ever to surface in an Indonesian court.

The murder of Theopilus and Marselina Pingak and their two adopted children, Memori and Asti, took place in December 1989. The elderly couple were the grandparents of Gerson, with whom he had been staying.

All three men recently lost any opportunity for reprieve after President Soeharto turned down their request for clemency.

The prison staffer confirmed a report from the Kompas daily newspaper that the parents of each of the three men were asked to come over quickly from Rote island, near Kupang, for a visit.

This practice is a solid indication that execution, usually carried out by a firing squad, is imminent.

According to the Kompas report, only the parents of Dance and Fredrick came to visit on Sept. 3, while those of Gerson did not turn up.

Dance and Fredrik were quoted by the Kompas daily as telling their visiting relatives to please not think about them anymore, because they were useless.

According to Mrs. Abdul Kadir, a relative of Dance and Fredrick, one of the last requests was, "Tell father and mother to immediately return to Rote and take care of our garden and also our brothers and sisters."

Jami, a relative of Gerson who came up to see him, quoted him as pleading for relatives to bring over his parents, or at least one of them.

Court records indicate that the 1989 murder stemmed from what appeared to be a trivial argument between Gerson and his grandfather.

Gerson was scorned by his grandfather for several days for damaging his motorcycle. Not happy with the treatment, Gerson went to his village friends Dance and Fredrik to solicit their help in the murder of the family. (02)