High Court's Marsinah case decision not final yet

JAKARTA (JP): East Java High Court's decision to free businessman Judi Susanto, the main defendant in the murder case of labor activist Marsinah, from all charges is not final, observers said yesterday.

Prominent legal experts Adi Andojo Soetjipto, Frans Hendra Winarta and Soesanto Bangoennagoro, as well as East Java police Chief Maj. Gen. Emon Rivai Arganata agreed that the High Court's decision could be reviewed by the Supreme Court.

Businessman Judi Susanto, who was sentenced to 17 years imprisonment by the Surabaya District Court last June, was cleared of all charges of killing labor activist Marsinah by the East Java High Court on Tuesday.

According to the High Court's verdict, Judi was freed of all charges because of a lack of legal reasons to throw him behind bars for the death of the labor activist last year.

The Surabaya Prosecutor's Office will appeal to the Supreme Court against the High Court's verdict.

Judi was accused of masterminding Marsinah's murder and legal observers argue that his release would mean that the eight people who had been convicted of killing her will all have to be released.

Activists from the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation have demanded that the police open a new investigation into the Marsinah affair.

Deputy Chief Justice for Criminal Cases Adi Andojo Soetjipto said that under Indonesian jurisprudence, the public prosecutors could appeal to the Supreme Court if they were sure they could prove that their previous charges had grounds.

"The Indonesian jurisprudence allows the prosecutors to file an appeal within 14 days," he told The Jakarta Post yesterday.

Adi said the High Court's decision shows that the judges at a higher level did not need to base their decision on a lower court's decision.

"The high court can investigate the case from the beginning," he said.

A legislator representing the ruling political grouping Golkar, Soesanto Bangoennagoro, and secretary to the legal aid body, Frans Hendra Winarta, agreed with Adi's argument.

"Let us leave the final decision on the murder case up to the Supreme Court," Soesanto said.

"We have to respect the prosecutors' rights to appeal to the Supreme Court," Frans said.

Frans regretted that most judges still strictly base their decisions on the investigators' report and neglect the facts revealed during the trials.

"The judges must be independent in their decisions," he said.

Frans said he wondered whether the prosecutors had strong enough evidence to support their appeal.

Maj. Gen. Rivai urged the public not to question the High Court's decision which overruled the verdict of the Surabaya District Court.

"The public should be patient because the legal battle is not over yet," Emon told Antara.

He added that the chief of the national police would also appeal to the Supreme Court. The police do not plan to open a new investigation into the case as some activists have demanded.

Meanwhile, J.E. Sahetapy, a professor at the School of Law of the Airlangga University in Surabaya, said the High Court's decision, which overruled the decision of the lower court, proved that there were judges who dared to say what they thought was right.

"I have noticed that the legal processes from the preliminary investigation until the court proceedings were engineered," he said.

The Marsinah case has been widely reported by both national and international media.

Marsinah was found dead after leading a workers' strike at PT Catur Putra Surya, a watch-making factory in Sidoarjo, East Java, owned by Judi.

Marsinah's badly mutilated body was found on May 9, 1993, in an abandoned shack near Nganjuk in East Java. (imn)