Jail terms sought for Surabaya security guards

JAKARTA (JP): Prosecutors in the Marsinah murder case yesterday urged the Surabaya District Court to send two security guards of PT Citra Putra Surya in Surabaya to prison for 13 years for their role in the murder of the labor activist.

The prosecutors said Suprapto, 22, and Suwono, 48, took part in the premeditated murder in May of last year.

The prosecution has charged them with abducting Marsinah, torturing her, holding her against her will and with dumping her body after she died of the injuries they inflicted.

They allegedly killed the activist upon orders from Yudi Susanto, the director of the watchmaking company they were working for, and the main defendant in the trials held in connection with the case.

The prosecution said that the murder plan was devised after Marsinah led strikes at the factory on May 3 and May 4 to demand better treatment for the workers.

Marsinah's badly mutilated body was found in Nganjuk on May 9, five days after she led the strike at the factory.

Both Suprapto and Suwono denied the accusations during earlier hearings, insisting, like the seven others who were being tried for the murder, that they were victims of an official cover-up.

The state prosecutors, led by Siradjuddin Ardan, said that testimony by three witnesses was sufficient evidence to warrant a guilty verdict.

One of the witnesses is an Army captain who said he hitched a lift from one of the defendants on a motorcycle that was also carrying Marsinah as a pillion rider.

The other two witnesses are the domestic helpers at Yudi Susanto's house who said they saw the two men carry Marsinah into the house and locked her up for three days in the servants' room.

"What the defendants did was sadistic. It violated religious and social norms," Siradjuddin said as quoted by Antara news agency.

Four of the nine people tried for Marsinah's murder have already been sentenced.

Three were sentenced to 12 years imprisonment each for their role in the murder.

The fourth, Mutiari, who was found guilty of being an accomplice to the murder, was given a seven-month prison term. She was released in April, but is continuing to appeal against the verdict.

Yudi Susanto is still on trial.

All nine defendants have retracted the incriminating statements they made to their interrogators, saying that they were tortured and the confessions made under undue duress.

However, the judges in the four trials in which defendants have been found guilty, based their decisions on those written statements.

The defendants and their lawyers are scheduled to read their defense statements during the following session next Monday. (par)