Man files report of police torture

Man files report of police torture

JAKARTA (JP): A man yesterday complained to the city police that a group of people, including a police officer whom he identified as Lt. Col. Alfon, had kidnapped and tortured him.

The victim, entrepreneur Sulaiman Ramli alias Han, 52, said that on May 12, 1995, at 11 p.m., around twenty people came to his house.

"When I asked them what the problem was, they did not answer, but hit and kicked me," he said, adding that they then dragged him to a van where Alfon was waiting.

According to Han, the men continued to abuse him in the parking lot of Satria Mandala military museum on Jl. Gatot Subroto, South Jakarta.

He said that the men also threatened him not to report the incident to the police. "If I report this case to the police, they will kill my relatives one by one."

Han's lawyer, Bambang Hartono, told reporters that the incident had been reported to the city police and it was being investigated. His client has yet to be questioned by the police as he is still recovering from wounds he received during the beating.

He disclosed that the incident has something to do with a 1990 Rp 3.6 billion (US$1.8 million) loan from a private bank.

In 1990 an acquaintance, Lay Mei Lin, obtained a loan from the private bank where she worked. Because bank regulations do not allow an employee to apply for a loan, Mei Lin used Han's name on the application form.

With an agreement between the two, it was said that Han obtained a Rp 3.6 million loan from the bank. But after receiving the money, he gave it to Mei Lin who then gave the money to her brother Hariyanto Latief with an agreement that Latief would repay the bank.

In 1993, the bank asked Han to repay the loan. Han then told Latief, who had used the money to import luxurious cars, to repay the bank. But Latief instead declared bankruptcy.

The bank, based on the loan agreement, kept asking Han to settle the debt. The bank then hired debt collectors. (29)