Mid-rank officer files suit against Bimantoro
JAKARTA (JP): Sr. Comr. Alfons Loemau filed a lawsuit on Monday against National Police chief Gen. Surojo Bimantoro, disputing his arrest and detention by the National Police on charges of insubordination.
The suit was registered at the South Jakarta District Court by his lawyers, Irvan Melayu and Irianto Subiakto.
The lawyers argued that procedures police employed in the detention and questioning of Alfons and seven other mid-ranking police officers were incorrect.
They contended that the National Police could not charge the eight police officers for breaching articles under the military criminal code relating to abuse of power.
Based on People's Consultative Assembly decree No. VII/MPR/2000, the National Police must now abide by civilian laws and regulations, and not military rules.
Therefore, any violations by police officers should be brought before a civil court and not a military tribunal, they said.
They also questioned the arrest ordered by the National Police chief when the alleged crime had not actually been committed.
Unlike other officers who responded to the summons for questioning over the alleged insubordination, Alfons failed to appear and was declared a fugitive.
He was finally apprehended at his home in Pondok Karya police housing complex, South Jakarta.
All officers are currently being detained by the National Police.
They have been charged with staging a revolt against the National Police chief on July 9, when dozens of mid-ranking officers gathered at National Police Headquarters and discussed Bimantoro's defiant stance against then President Abdurrahman Wahid.
The officers had declared Bimantoro disobedient and demanded that he comply with presidential orders issued by Abdurrahman, which ordered him to vacate his post.
In an interview with Tempo magazine, Alfons charged that it was Bimantoro who started the insubordination against his superior, then President Abdurrahman.
"That insubordination caused a moral movement among middle- ranking officers for the first time on July 9," Alfons said. (06)