Murder witness retracts testimony to city police

Murder witness retracts testimony to city police

JAKARTA (JP): A witness in a murder case retracted his earlier
testimony to police during a court hearing held yesterday.

Philipus, 47, a security guard at a Catholic church in
Pademangan, North Jakarta, (not at a private company as reported
earlier) is also the prime suspect in the murder. He took the
witness stand yesterday at the court hearing to process Suparmi,
his wife, who is allegedly an accomplice in the killings.

Philipus is charged with murdering a housewife and three
children in their house in the Bambu Apus subdistrict of East
Jakarta on Oct. 2 last year. The Rohadi family lived about 200
meters from Philipus' house.

Philipus told the court that he was under severe physical and
psychological pressure when giving testimony.

"I was stripped naked, beaten black-and-blue and had four
police personnel sitting on a table with each of its legs fixed
on my hands and feet," he said of his experience days before the
report was made.

The witness said the police controlled the scenario at the
reconstruction of the crime and said he had to comply with it.

"I was led to conduct different scenarios during the
reconstruction," he said.

The corpses, he said, were placed parallel to each other
during rehearsal to the reconstruction of the crime but were put
at different angles during actual reconstruction.

The witness then gave his version of the details of the
killings as enacted during the rehearsal.

In response to Philipus' explanations, the team of judges said
that even when the suspect lied to the court, his lie matched
what seemed to have happened.

"Please help the court process by not beating around the bush
so much," Judge Tojib Madretis who led the hearing told witness
Philipus.

Prior to Suparmi's hearing, a court hearing to process
Philipus as the prime suspect of the killings was adjourned
yesterday until next Monday due to the absence of two police
officers who were to appear as witnesses, due to out of town
duty.

Security at the courthouse, which was packed with visitors,
seemed lax compared to previous sessions of the case where
security was tight.

The suspects in the killings are being tried in three separate
trials. All three hearings, including a closed hearing to try
underage children allegedly involved in the murder, were
adjourned until next Monday. (14)