Lawyers protest Dibyo

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)