JP/3/Tampubolon/0
JP/3/Tampubolon/0
Suspects in Tampubolon's case in good health
JAKARTA (JP): The police have promised that torture was not used to wrest the confessions from the four men accused of killing an army general last week.
"They are all fine," City Police spokesman Lt. Col. A. Latief Rabar told reporters yesterday after confirming that the suspects have been treated fairly with officers at the East Jakarta police precinct where the four are being detained.
Latief's statement was made to dismiss the public suspicion that the four will likely be tortured by investigators or other members of the security forces during questioning.
The four suspects are identified as Rusdi Abdul Rahman, 24, Hendrik Setyawan, 25, Rudiyanto, 24, and Lukman, 30. Rusdi was a security guard at a private house close to the scene of the killing, Hendrik a construction worker, Rudiyanto an employee of a firm and Lukman a local ojek (motorcycle taxi) driver.
The police claim that Brig. Gen. Toga Manahan Franklin Tampubolon, 54, an expert staff on economic affairs to the Armed Forces (ABRI) chief was stabbed with a bayonet by Rusdi and gashed with a machete by Hendrik on the evening of April 4. The other two are accused of helping.
Tampubolon died at the UKI hospital in East Jakarta, half an hour after the attack at around 10 p.m. in front of a Warteg food stall on the road, which is less than a 10-minute drive from his house on Jl. Cakra Wijaya at the Armed Forces' Diskum AD housing complex.
The police continue to insist that the crime was not a political assassination, but an unfortunate case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Six and a half hours after their arrest a number of high- ranking police and military officers "visited" the four young men at the back of the East Jakarta police precinct.
On Monday, Tampubolon's son, Second Lt. Richard Tampubolon also came to the police precinct.
Latief also said that the four have yet to be accompanied by lawyers during interrogation.
"They said they're still considering" legal representation, said Latief, adding that Rusdi graduated from a vocational high school while Hendrik finished primary school.
Recently, executive director of the legal aid foundation (YLBHI), Mulyana W. Kusumah, said that foundation lawyers have pledged to accompany the four suspects during the questioning to prevent pressure, including torture, by the investigators.
The material evidence in connection with the killing, including the bayonet, the machete and Tampubolon's car are at the police precinct as the police work on their investigation.
The victim was a former intelligence deputy assistant to ABRI's chief of general affairs and also a group commander for one of ABRI's four elite red beret Kopassus squads. Tampubolon also worked on the dispute at the Toba Batak Protestant Church for ABRI.
Meanwhile Kopassus Commander Brig. Gen. Agum Gumelar said yesterday he takes the death of Tampubolon as a sign of a decadent society.
"Crimes in the city have reached an alarming level and things are feared to deteriorate if proper measures aren't taken to stop them," the one-star general said.
Brig. Gen. Agum said that the red berets are ready to move in and help Jakarta authorities clean up the streets. (bsr/rms)