More witnesses identify Adiguna as Rudy's shooter

The Jakarta Post Jakarta

Two more witnesses have identified businessman Adiguna Sutowo as the killer of waiter Yohannes "Rudy" Berchmans Haerudy Natong at the Hilton Hotel's Fluid Bar on Jan. 1.

Cut Nina, a bartender on duty on New Year's Eve, told the court on Thursday that she was standing two meters from Rudy when he was shot.

"When I first heard the loud explosion, I didn't realize that it was a gun being fired. After Rudy fell and I approached him, I saw a man in a long-sleeved white shirt hiding a gun in his pocket. That man is the defendant," Nina told the court, adding that Adiguna did not seem flustered at the time.

Nina, 23, said she heard Novia Herdiana, also known as Tinul, try to intervene in an argument Adiguna and Rudy had shortly before the shooting, but did not hear the rest of the conversation.

Another witness, Fluid Club and Lounge general manager Yerry Eka Nugraha also testified on Thursday that three employees had told him right after the incident that it was Adiguna who shot Rudy.

"My marketing manager, Tommy, and a security guard told me that Rudy was shot and it was Adiguna Sutowo who shot him," Yerry said, explaining that he was not in the bar at time of the shooting.

Yerry added that he then rushed to the bar and found Rudy on the floor bleeding.

He also said that Werner Saferna, or Wewen, who was still at the bar, also told him that it was Adiguna who did the shooting, which took place around 5 a.m. on Jan. 1.

"First, I thought Wewen did it. So I asked him, 'Did you shoot Rudy?' and he answered, 'No, it was Adiguna'," Yerry said.

In the same courtroom a week earlier, Werner, who removed the murder weapon from the crime scene only to hand it over to the police a few days later, had testified that Adiguna pulled the trigger.

When asked by the prosecutors why security guards at the hotel had not discovered Adiguna's gun, Yerry said that he was not sure whether Adiguna had gone through security check before entering the club since he might have been considered a VIP guest.

"We trusted security procedures applied by the hotel management. In theory, everyone has to go through security checks, but in reality the procedure is not applied to several VIPs," he said, clarifying that VIPs included the owner of the Hilton Hotel, his relatives and his colleagues.

The 47-year-old Adiguna, the brother of the owner of the hotel, Ponco Sutowo, did not comment on the testimony of either witness. (006)