More clues found in Marsinah murder probe

JAKARTA (JP): Police have collected several more clues in their investigation of the murder of labor activist Marsinah, although they say it may take them some considerable time to pin down the murderer or murderers.

Having announced last week that they had identified two or three new suspects, police now say they have found blood traces at a military post; a discovery that could open up a new frontier in their investigation.

The investigators earlier focused their search for clues in and around the house of businessman Yudi Susanto, prompting criticisms that they were not serious about the investigation.

Yudi, Marsinah's employer at the time of her death, has been exonerated of murder by the Supreme Court. The exoneration led to the release of eight others who had also been imprisoned in relation to the brutal murder.

This week police exhumed Marsinah's body, which had been buried in her home village in Nganjuk. They plan to fly the corpse to Jakarta for further medical examination.

Marsinah's badly mutilated body was found in an abandoned shack in Nganjuk, East Java, in May last year, only a few days after she led a workers' strike at the watchmaking company owned by Yudi.

Besides Yudi, eight management staff and security guards of the company were convicted by the court of first instance in Surabaya. In May the Supreme Court overturned all the convictions, saying that the evidence presented in the lower court did not support the guilty findings.

Police have since reopened the murder investigation.

Leading Surabaya criminal lawyer Trimoelja D. Soerjadi, who defended Yudi Susanto, has been asked by the police to help with the investigation.

Yesterday Trimoelja lauded the police for their conduct of the new investigation.

"I notice that the police have followed legal procedures in re-investigating the Marsinah murder case," said Trimoelja, who during his defense of Yudi was very critical about the way in which the authorities had dealt with his client.

The lawyer said he had been invited to take part in police visits to the Sidoarjo District Military Command, the Porong Military Post in Sidoarjo and Yudi's house in Surabaya, as part of the new police investigation.

Traces

"The police found traces of blood in those three places," he said, adding, however, that police could not determine to whom the blood belonged. "We'll have to wait for the police DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) test on the blood samples," he said.

The East Java military has also been conducting its own investigation, in response to allegations that some of its officers were involved in the labor dispute at the watchmaking company.

Trimoelja said he had not represented Yudi since his client's exoneration of the murder charge.

"I was invited by the police to observe the new investigation probably because I have been the most outspoken lawyer in criticizing the police procedures so far," he said.

The lawyer said that, by law, Yudi Susanto could not be prosecuted again for a crime of which he had already been acquitted.

While not naming anyone in particular, the police have indicated that some of those who were earlier exonerated may have been involved in the murder after all.

Police say that, if that turns out to be the case, they plan to file for a review of the case by the Supreme Court.

But Trimoelja said that was impossible.

"According to article 263 of the Criminal Code Procedures, only a convict or his heirs can file for a review," he said. (imn)