High Court's Marsinah case decision not final yet

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)