No plan for autopsy on Lopa, says govt

No plan for autopsy on Lopa, says govt

JAKARTA (JP): The government announced on Wednesday that it
had no plans to ask for an autopsy to be performed on the late
attorney general Baharuddin Lopa, who died in Saudi Arabia on
Tuesday.

The remarks arose as Lopa's untimely death came as he was
embarking on a thorough investigation on top-level figures,
prompting speculation of the causes of his demise.

Emphasizing that doctors at Al-Hamadi Hospital in Riyadh
treated Lopa during his three-day stay there, Minister of Defense
Mahfud M.D. acknowledged there were a lot of suspicions behind
Lopa's death due his hardline stance against corruptors.

"There are suspicions about the unseemly death of Pak Lopa but
I do not want to comment. There are people who say that to become
an attorney general must be unpleasant because of the threats one
is likely to receive," Mahfud replied, when asked about the
government's possible autopsy plan.

"We have not considered (an autopsy), because we are also
still not certain about the speculation," the minister added.

According to Mahfud, Lopa and his predecessor Marzuki Darusman
realized that their position was vulnerable to possible
poisoning, black magic practices or the leaking of information
from the Attorney General's Office.

"Like Pak Lopa, he never touched meals served there (the
Attorney General's Office), and preferred to eat food he brought
from home," said Mahfud.

"Similar complaints were also voiced by Marzuki Darusman, who
said he never discussed important matters at his office," said
Mahfud.

President Abdurrahman Wahid sent a team of presidential
doctors to Riyadh who arrived there on Monday, two days after
Lopa's admission to hospital.

"I regret that it was too late," Mahfud noted.

Separately, spokesman for the Attorney General's Office,
Muljohardjo, disclosed that the Saudi Arabian government required
the issuance of an official document from the hospital about the
cause of a patient's death.

Lopa, the former Indonesian ambassador to Saudi Arabia for two
years until February this year, was hospitalized after his
arrival from Mecca, where he performed a minor haj pilgrimage. He
traveled by car although the distance between the two cities is
about 1,000 kilometers and he did not have enough time to rest.

Doctors found clots in three blood vessels and planned an
operation on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, a Garuda plane flew in Lopa's remains from Riyadh
on Wednesday night after receiving a special permit to add its
route to Riyadh from the original Jeddah- Jakarta flight.

Lopa's body is expected to arrive at Soekarno-Hatta Airport on
Thursday. However, there are differing versions about the arrival
time.

According to an official announcement at his private residence
in Pondok Bambu, East Jakarta, the body will arrive at the
airport at 11 a.m, and reach his home about 1 p.m.

After being taken to the Attorney General's Office, Lopa will
be buried at 4 p.m. at the National Heroes Cemetery in Kalibata,
South Jakarta.

Lopa's spokesman Muljohardjo said, however, that Lopa's body
would arrive at the airport at 3 p.m.

President Abdurrahman Wahid plans to welcome the body at the
airport and may lead Lopa's funeral ceremony in Kalibata.
Minister of Justice and Human Rights Marsilam Simanjuntak may
also lead the ceremony if the President is not present at the
cemetery.

The President plans to swear in Erman Radjagukguk as acting
Cabinet secretary, replacing Marsilam on Thursday. It is still
not clear whether he will also install acting Attorney General
Soeparman, who was promoted to the position on Monday, during the
same occasion.

"The President has ordered Pak Lopa's burial in Kalibata,"
Soeparman said, concerning the funeral venue.

The President assigned Lopa to the post of attorney general on
June 1. He served as minister of justice and human rights for
nearly four months from February, 2001.

He once complained that his latest position as the Secretary-
General of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas Ham)
had caused some unpleasant experiences during his term as
Indonesian ambassador to Saudi Arabia from February 1999 until
his promotion to the Cabinet.

Born on Aug. 27, 1935, Lopa spent much of his life as a
prosecutor. While serving as a senior official at the Ministry of
Justice from 1988 to 1995, he also used his official office as
the office of Komnas HAM.

Just two week before his death, during a hearing with the
House of Representatives on June 18, he disclosed several major
corruption cases that he wanted to investigate concerning human
rights abuses in East Timor and several banking corruption cases.
(tso/bby/prb)