Lawyers want police to free Bogor students and apologize

JAKARTA (JP): The Jakarta Legal Aid Institute plans to visit the Bogor Police Headquarters today to demand the release of three students accused of killing of a police officer.

Chairperson Apong Herlina said the institute will ask the police to apologize for their error in arresting the three students since it had now been established that Second Lt. Dadang Rusmana had died of a heart attack.

"We will urge the police to clarify the matter and announce that Dadang's death was caused by a heart attack. They (police) have manipulated the information," Apong told The Jakarta Post yesterday.

Apong and her colleagues are representing Juanda University students in the case of the death of Dadang, head of the intelligence unit of Bogor Police.

Apong and human rights commission member Clementino dos Reis Amaral visited the university and the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) Bogor Hospital yesterday, where they met with doctors and paramedics who treated Dadang.

"We should believe the hospital's autopsy result. Who else we can trust? The findings were made by a forensic expert," she said.

Clementino said separately yesterday that the commission was looking into the matter and would talk to the police as part of its investigation.

Dadang was admitted to the hospital at about 4 p.m. on May 9 and treated by doctor Elwiaty in the emergency unit, Apong said.

"Dadang was still alive at the time. His body was clean. There were no bruises except minor injuries on his lips and nose. There was no sign of torture," Apong quoted Elwiaty as saying.

She said Elwiaty suddenly inserted an intravenous drip into Dadang's hand and installed cardiopulmonary resuscitation equipment, but he died 10 minutes later.

She said Dadang's body was then examined by the hospital's forensic expert, Yuli Budiningsih, at about 7 p.m.

Yuli's conclusion, that Dadang's death was caused by a heart attack, was supported by her husband, a coronary expert, who accompanied her during the autopsy, she said.

Police have maintained that Dadang died from a head injury sustained when a rock was thrown at him by students after he tried to rescue a military intelligence officer, Capt. Ali, from being mobbed by students.

Students have insisted they attacked Ali because he had entered the university's mosque without removing his shoes first. Ali remains hospitalized.

Many witnesses claim that Dadang's body was not at the scene when they were dispersed by hundreds of police and military officers who entered the campus.

According to Apong, witnesses saw Dadang sitting with other police officers about 50 meters from the demonstration.

The witnesses claim Dadang suddenly fell unconscious after the plainclothes officer examined the situation around him.

Bogor Regional Police Chief Col. Abubakar Nataprawira said Monday that a confession by the three students and a reenactment revealed that the students hit the police officer with a wooden bat, a stone and stepped on his stomach.

Abubakar said he had yet to study the autopsy report.

Apong protested that police conducted the reenactment without the presence of the students' lawyers.

She said the students -- Emon Wahyudi, Tb. Ade and Syaifullah -- and nine other students had been tortured by police during detention. The nine students were subsequently released.

She said one of the three suspects, identified as Emon, was left paralyzed by the torture. (jun)