More clues found in Marsinah murder probe

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)