New inquiry into death of activist
New inquiry into death of activist
JAKARTA (JP): East Java Police said yesterday that they will set up a special team to investigate who really murdered labor activist Marsinah.
"We will reopen investigations following the exoneration by the Supreme Court of all defendants of all charges in the murder of labor activist Marsinah," East Java Police chief Maj. Gen. Roesmanhadi said in Surabaya.
The Court's decision was warmly welcomed by human rights activists and legal observers.
Marzuki Darusman of the National Commission on Human Rights, legislators B.N. Marbun and Soesanto Bangoennagoro, law professor Satjipto Rahardjo and East Java Military Commander Maj. Gen. Imam Utomo all agreed that the police should reopen the investigation.
Marzuki, deputy chairman of the rights commission, said the Supreme Court's decision meant that the police should reopen the investigation without waiting for any written orders from the Supreme Court.
"When the rights commission sent a fact-finding team to East Java last year, we cautioned the local authorities that the nine defendants were not the collective murderers," he told The Jakarta Post, adding that the real murderers remained at large.
"The police can use reports from the public, the defendants' lawyers, and the rights commission's fact-finding team as references," he said.
Marsinah was found dead after leading a workers' strike at PT Catur Putra Surya, a watch-making factory in Sidoarjo, East Java. Her badly mutilated body was found on May 9, 1993, in an abandoned shack near Nganjuk in East Java.
Judi Susanto, director of the company and alleged mastermind behind the murder, was released in November, immediately after the East Java High Court's ruling, saying that he was not guilty. He had earlier been sentenced to 17 years imprisonment, the stiffest jail term handed down in the case.
Mutiari, secretary to the company, who had been sentenced to seven months in prison by the Sidoarjo District Court for allegedly being an accessory to the murder was also acquitted by the Court. She was released from the Medaeng prison in August last year because she had completed her six-month jail term.
The other seven defendants, who were released by the Supreme Court on Wednesday, are all employees of the company involved: Yudi Astono (sentenced to four years imprisonment prior to being exonerated), Bambang Wuryantoyo (12 years), Widayat (12 years), A.S. Prayogi (12 years), Karyono Wongso (13 years), Soewono (12 years), and Soeprapto (12 years).
Marzuki said the exoneration of the nine defendants indicated that torture, which used to be employed by investigators, was not effective in extracting information from a witness or a suspect.
He believed that the ruling would restore the public's trust in the Supreme Court, after a series of earlier disappointments caused by the Chief Justices' controversial decisions.
Maj. Gen. Imam Utomo said the release of the nine defendants did not mean that the murder case was closed. "We will not stop the case but will bring either the previous defendants or new ones into the investigation," he said, as quoted by Antara.
He asserted that the case was quite difficult, saying that in such a murder case it sometimes took years to uncover the murderer.
B.N. Marbun said the release of the defendants indicated that previous investigations -- which, he said, seemed to have been engineered -- had failed to uncover who the real murderer was.
Marbun said the Supreme Court's decision could help to restore the public's confidence in the Indonesian judicial system.
Soesanto Bangoennagoro said the case was not final until the real murderer was sentenced by the court.
He supported Imam's statement that those just released could be charged again if the court later found the real murderer and could prove that they were involved in the murder.
He said that such a case, in which a court releases all of the defendants because of lack of evidence and witnesses, should not occur again.
Satjipto Rahardjo said he saw nothing extraordinary in the Supreme Court's decision. "It is common that a court's decision is either in favor of or against the defendant."
However, he said, since it was an important and interesting case, the Supreme Court's decision was seen as helpful for the image of the Indonesian judicial system, which has long been considered ineffectual by the people.
He said that the people just released should not be put under investigation again. "The police investigators should look for other suspects in the murder case," he told The Post. (imn)