Murder suspect's boss ready to lose his job

BOGOR, West Java (JP): The superior of the main suspect in Tjetje Tadjudin's death, yesterday said he was ready to take any responsibility for his subordinate's actions.

Lt. Col. M. Ruslan Riza acknowledged he was under fire after First Lt. DT was declared the chief suspect for torturing to death robbery suspect Tjetje while he was in Bogor police custody.

"I have no choice. I will accept any responsibility as DT's superior," he said.

Ruslan was speaking after National Police Chief Lt. Gen. Dibyo Widodo's said Lt. DT's superiors must also be responsible for Tjetje's death.

Dibyo said from Paris on Saturday that DT's superiors were responsible for Tjetje's lack of protection.

West Java Police Chief Maj. Gen. Nana Permana last week said Lt. DT, the head of the Bogor police detectives, was the first man responsible for Tjetje's death.

Tjetje and friend Norman Lubis were in police custody for their alleged roles in an armed robbery in which their friend Zaenuddin Lesmana was killed on Oct. 11.

Tjetje died on Oct. 21 on the way to the Bogor's PMI hospital from the police lockup. First it was said he died from serious respiratory problems. However, the postmortem report says Tjetje was beaten to death.

Ruslan yesterday said he had felt strange since Tjetje's death. "I have lost my appetite since then," he said. "Everything is up to my superiors. What I am doing now is carrying out my daily routine as well as I can," he said.

Yesterday, Maj. Gen. Nana Permana said from Bandung that as Lt. DT's superior officer, he was ready to accept responsibility.

Nana said during his visit to daily newspaper Pikiran Rakyat's office that direct responsibility was to the suspect. "Hopefully any decision on punishment will be announced this week following reports from the fact finding team," he said.

He promised to reveal the team's findings. "We plan to conceal nothing in this case. If a police officer is found guilty in the death of Tjetje he will be punished," he said.

Meanwhile, Merdeka daily yesterday quoted a Bogor Regency Police source who said the police intended to sue the forensic medical expert at Bogor's PMI hospital, Budi Sampurna, for revealing autopsy results to the press.

Lawyer Petrus Bala Pattyona told the Post yesterday that this was not possible.

Petrus, who used to work at the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute and is now with Ruhut Sitompul and Associates, said a post-mortem report, as part of evidence, was open to the public in line with the universal principle of an open and fair trial.

Article 184 of the Criminal Code cites a number of material evidence including "letters of proof (bukti surat)," and this includes such a report.

Evidence stated in Article 184 includes testimonies of witnesses, experts, and letters.

"Going to court about a doctor revealing a visum is tantamount to an effort to shift the core of the case," Petrus said. Tjetje's death is now the center of public attention as it involves allegations of torture by protectors of the public, Petrus said.

If the case goes to court, "the police had better be ready to face embarrassment" as testimonies could further reveal the allegations, he said.

If revealing the report has caused investigation difficulties this still does not justify a law suit, he said. "The doctor is not guilty".

The source said the results were conveyed to parties besides the police without police permission. The family of the late Tjetje also got the results.

As an autopsy can only be conducted with the victim's family's permission, the family is fully entitled to the post-mortem reports, Petrus said. (21/17/sur/anr)