New suspects in Udin killing
JAKARTA (JP): The National Commission on Human Rights claims to know of other likely suspects of the August killing of journalist Fuad Muhammad Syafruddin, Antara reported.
Commission secretary general Baharuddin Lopa said in Salatiga, Central Java, yesterday the rights body was investigating "alternative suspects" to Dwi Sumaji, currently detained by police, but wouldn't do too much for fear of interfering with official investigations.
"We're still examining alternative names that turned up in our investigations, but we must not interfere with the official investigation because the rights commission is not a 'super body'," he said.
The commission could be considered a "super body" if it consistently antagonized or corrected other agencies' reports or statements. Such behavior could ruin the commission's working mechanisms, he said.
Another commission member, Muladi, said separately that the commission had sent the names of other potential attackers to National Police Chief Lt. Gen. Dibyo Widodo.
"The court will later decide everything," Muladi said.
Lopa said the commission always tried to cooperate with other institutions. "We look for data, facts and come up with something, and we seek to confirm it with police. That's what we did about the investigation into the killing of Udin (the journalist)," he said.
Fuad, better known as Udin, was beaten by unidentified thugs on Aug. 13. He died three days later without regaining consciousness.
Many believe Udin was killed because of his critical reporting on local government policies and rampant corruption in the administration.
Criticism
Police have been criticized for their premature claim that they knew the identity of the killer and would capture him quickly.
Weeks after the claim, police arrested Dwi Sumaji alias Iwik, a driver at a local advertising firm, in a manner which also drew criticism. The suspect was given alcohol until he passed out and told he would be given wealth in exchange for confessing to killing Udin.
The rights commission sent a team to study the case and found rights violations in the arrest of the suspected killer. "We have reported our findings for the police to follow up," Lopa said.
Lopa was in Salatiga to address a seminar on political development at Satya Wacana Christian University.
When asked if the commission agreed with the police claim that Iwik was the killer, Lopa said: "How can the commission agree with something which is still not final, that is incomplete?"
The police and the commission are in the process of "checking, rechecking and cross-checking."
"Leave the police to their conviction that Iwik is the killer. What's important is the court's ruling. No problem, the truth will prevail," he said. (swe)