Lawyers protest Dibyo

YOGYAKARTA (JP): The legal teams representing relatives of slain journalist Fuad Muhammad Syafruddin and his suspected killer sent letters of protest yesterday to National Police Chief Lt. Gen. Dibyo Widodo.

The lawyers said they took offense at Dibyo's saying Wednesday that the lawyers were hampering the investigation into the case. His remark was made during a hearing with the House of Representatives, and was aired on television.

Dibyo expressed doubts that the main witness, Marsiyem, who is also Fuad's wife, was really suffering from depression as her doctor had claimed. He also expressed his suspicions that the reported illness was a ploy arranged by her lawyers to hamper the police reconstruction of the crime.

One of the lawyers, Budi Santoso, said Dibyo's statement was "premature" because he had only received reports from one source, namely the Yogyakarta police office.

Budi again stated that his client Marsiyem was really in poor health and had been told on Dec. 5 to go for treatment at the Puri Nirmala mental hospital. Marsiyem's family, however, refused to have her treated at the hospital.

"The police chief's statement was an insult to the oath taken by the medical profession," Budi said. He also said Marsiyem was a truth-seeking woman.

The lawyers representing Dwi Sumaji, the accused, also protested. Djufri Taufik, Triyandi Mulkan and Eko Widiyanto said the remarks were a distortion of the facts.

"The police chief should have tried to seek the truth from the ground up, not just hearing reports written only to please him," Djufri said.

Budi said he and the other lawyers had previously told Yogyakarta police that staging a reconstruction of the murder would have a boomerang effect if it's later found that the suspect did not commit the murder in the first place. (23/01)