Oetojo blasts court for freeing alleged killer of Marsinah
JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Justice Oetojo Oesman criticized the East Java high court's controversial decision to release businessman Judi Susanto, the main suspect in the murder case of labor activist Marsinah.
"The East Java high court made a daring decision when it released Judi Susanto of all charges," Oetojo said in a hearing with Commission III of the House of Representatives (DPR) yesterday.
He told members of the commission, which deals with legal affairs, that the Supreme Court wanted to know what the high courts' considerations were.
"The verdict needs reinvestigating," he added.
Head of the DPR commission III Suhardi said that the clearing of Judi Susanto from all charges last week would have consequences on the fate of the other eight convicts.
"According to the prevailing laws, the high court's verdict means that the other convicts in the murder case will have to be released as well." he said.
Judi was accused of masterminding Marsinah's murder and legal observers argue that his release could mean the acquittal of the other eight people convicted in connection with her murder.
Sentenced to 17 years imprisonment by the Surabaya district court in June, Judi was cleared of all murder charges by the high court citing a lack of legal reasons to put him in jail for the death of the labor activist last year.
The East Java prosecutor's office has already appealed to the Supreme Court over the High Court's verdict.
News about Judi's acquittal last week was received with relief by legal activists who had, from the outset, suspected that Marsinah's trials had been plagued with manipulations to fit with the authorities' scenario.
The Jakarta-based Indonesian Legal Aid, which conducted its own investigation into the murder, implicated the local military in the Marsinah case.
At the hearing Oetojo said that it was within the authority of the East Java high court's judges to release the defendant.
Supreme Court
"It proves that the High Court's judges were independent in their decision," he told reporters after the hearing. "However, the Supreme Court has the authority to verify the basis of the high court's decision."
The Supreme Court will decide whether it is necessary to re- open the whole Marsinah investigation, he added.
Oetojo said the prosecutors' appeal was made possible by the Supreme Court's recent circular, which stated that the appeal to the Supreme Court was necessary to seek the legal truth in Judi's release.
He admitted that the prosecutor's right to appeal was not guaranteed in the Criminal Code (KUHAP). But he declined to comment when journalists pressed why the circular was more authoritative than the code.
The Marsinah case was widely reported by both national and international media. Marsinah was found dead after leading a workers' strike at PT Catur Putra Surya, a watch-making factory in Sidoarjo, East Java, that was owned by Judi.
Her badly mutilated body was later found on May 9, 1993, in an abandoned shack near Nganjuk in East Java.
The trials of the nine people in the murder case was wrought with controversy from the beginning, including the way they were arrested. All nine pleaded innocent and said they were victims of a frame up. (imn)