Marsinah case may reopen: Expert
Marsinah case may reopen: Expert
JAKARTA (JP): The case of a woman laborer allegedly murdered
by military officers in 1993 may be reopened if new evidence
comes out in an ongoing investigation, criminal law expert Loebby
Loqman said on Monday.
Although a verdict has already been given, a criminal case can
be reopened as long as there is new evidence that can be used in
a retrial, Loebby said at a seminar on the controversial Marsinah
case.
"This case has solid grounds to be reopened," Loebby told The
Jakarta Post. He pointed out, however, that the reopening of the
case depends greatly on how the police investigation proceeds.
Labor activist Marsinah died on May 8, 1993, in Nganjuk, East
Java. Her badly mutilated body was found in a forest not long
after she had led a labor strike.
In 1994 the Supreme Court acquitted the eight people who had
been convicted by the Surabaya District Court for Marsinah's
murder. But in July 1998, police restarted their investigation by
questioning 26 witnesses following public pressure to reopen the
Marsinah case.
Former attorney general Suhadibroto concluded that the
Marsinah trial was handled unprofessionally and resulted in the
release of all suspects.
"The intervention of the armed forces obviously influenced, if
not hampered, the fairness of the process of police
investigations," he told participants at the seminar on Monday.
Another speaker, forensic expert Mun'im Idries, said the
postmortem examination on Marsinah's remains was done improperly
as it was carried out by doctors who did not how to do an
autopsy.
The seminar was organized by Ratna Sarumpaet, a woman
playwright who has staged Song from the Underworld, a play
depicting Marsinah's struggle for justice and her protests during
her journey in the netherworld.
Ratna said the seminar aimed to introduce a new method of
unraveling a case through a people's trial, which would allow for
the public's distrust of the Indonesian legal system.
"We chose the Marsinah case because it is a case which has the
most evidence but which nevertheless has not been completely
solved," she said, adding that conclusions reached in the seminar
will be presented to the National Police chief in the near
future. (04)