PKI political prisoner dies

JAKARTA: Death-row political prisoner, Soekatno, 69, of the now defunct Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) died in hospital yesterday.

The secretary of the Working Group for Service to Prisoners (Pokja PLP-PGI), Gustav Dupe, said Soekatno died at 12:05 noon at the Kramat Djati police hospital after suffering complications from TB, lever and prostate problems.

"He was hospitalized on April 17. After treatment doctors declared on May 2 that he was okay, and we took him back to Cipinang prison," Gustaf said.

"However, he fell sick again last Tuesday and we took him back to the hospital where he finally passed away. He has no children and kin."

Soekatno was the former chairman of the PKI People's Youth wing and a former legislator in the Gotong Royong House of Representatives.

He was sentenced to death in 1971 under the 1963 Subversion Law on charges of subversion against the state ideology of Pancasila and the 1945 Constitution.

Other PKI members on death row are Asep Suryaman, Marsoedi, Bungkus, and Nataneal Marsudi, who were sentenced in 1976.

Col. A. Latief, the then chief of the Jakarta Military Command's Infantry Brigade was sentenced to a life imprisonment.

All are in East Jakarta's Cipinang prison. (aan)