Officer ordered to appear at Udin's murder trial

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.