Officer ordered to appear at Udin's murder trial

Asip A. Hasani, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

The Yogyakarta Military Tribunal ordered on Tuesday the local military prosecutor to compel detective police officer Second Insp. Edy Wuryanto, the sole suspect in the disappearance of evidence relating to the murder of a journalist, to stand trial next month, after he failed to attend on three consecutive occasions.

"We can't give any more leeway to the suspect as he failed to appear at the last three sessions. I order the prosecutor to bring the suspect by force to the next court session," military judge Lt. Col. Riza Thalib, who presided over the trial, said.

According to Eddy's lawyer, Adj. Sr. Comr. Andi Marpaung, his client did not know about the trial because he was still at large.

He said he knew that Eddy's last move was to the detectives unit at the National Police Headquarters; "we tried but have failed to make contact with him."

Edy Wuryanto was sentenced to eight months in jail by Yogyakarta Military Tribunal last year for causing the disappearance of police evidence relating to the murder of Fuad Muhammad Safruddin, alias Udin, a journalist of Bernas daily in 1996. Edy was, at that time, a police detective who investigated the murder.

Edy, however, rejected the verdict and appealed to the Central Java Military Tribunal in Semarang. Semarang Military Tribunal did not accept Edy's appeal but ordered the Yogyakarta Military Tribunal to hold the trial again.

Udin's relatives have sued Eddy over the disappearance of the material evidence after the suspect dumped the evidence in the sea during a traditional memorial ceremony for Udin, at Parangtritis, on Aug. 13, 1996, months after his death.

Many believe that Udin's murder was closely connected to the damning pieces he wrote in the newspaper about alleged corruption scandals involving then Bantul regent Col. Sri Roso Sudarmo and several other Bantul officials, as well as former president Soeharto's step-brother Noto Suwito.

The police were strongly criticized for accusing a driver at a local advertising agency, Dwi Sumadji, alias Iwik, of killing Udin. A local court, however, declared Iwik to be not guilty.

Lawyer of Udin's relatives Budi Hartono from Yogyakarta Legal Aid Foundation said that Edy's presence at the trial was very important as it could lead to more clues about police attempts to discover who murdered Udin.

"At least the court will be able to obtain information from him, such as who ordered him to cause the disappearance of Udin's notebook," Budi said.

"Edy is also one of the police officers who should be held responsible for engineering Iwik's arrest as a suspect in Udin's murder case."

The police have also been criticized for allegedly not being cooperative in the search for Edy. A team of lawyers from Yogyakarta police headquarters has not provided sufficient reason as to why they were unable to present Edy at the trial.

Military prosecutor Maj. Sumartono ordered the court to bring Edy to the next session of the trial.

"I will coordinate this hunt for Edy with the Yogyakarta Police and the detective police headquarters in Jakarta," he said.