Police attempts to impress public doomed to failure
Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Police attempts to impress the public on the seriousness of legal action against their own officers alleged to have committed crimes seem doomed to failure as many irregularities were found at an open hearing on Tuesday.
One of the outstanding cases, which was tried on Tuesday, was about a policeman caught red-handed stealing a goat by locals in Sawangan, Depok eight years ago. During the incident, the defendant, Second Brig. Durino, fired his pistol in desperation at the mob. The incident claimed one life.
Judges at the military court hearing, which was chaired by Judge Lt.Col. Siti Juwariyah, appeared to view the case as normal, as she was unwilling to query irregularities that abounded, including missing evidence.
Much to spectators' surprise, Judge Siti simply commented, "That's acceptable; it (the case) occurred eight years ago," on a report that an item of evidence confiscated by the police, a Kijang van used by the defendant in the incident, was missing. The evidence, which was parked at the police Mobile Brigade building, reportedly went missing following renovation work at the building some years ago.
The judge then continued the hearing using a photo of the Kijang as replacement for the missing evidence.
It was unclear why the defendant only stood trial for the theft, leaving another charge of firearm misuse, which claimed one life, untouched.
According to Article 363 of the Criminal Code on theft, those found guilty of crime are subject to a maximum of five years in prison.
Twenty-two cases, in which police personnel are implicated, are slated to be heard by Oct.18.
Meanwhile, city police head of legal affairs Sr. Comr. Waluyo acknowledged that the police planned to clear all the old dossiers on crimes allegedly committed by police personnel that are still subject to a military court, before the issuance in April of new Law No. 2, 2002 on the police.
The new law on police rules, among other things, stipulates that all police officers are subject to civilian instead of military courts. The law was passed following the separation of the police from the military.
"In line with the new police law passed by the House of Representatives this year, we have to legally process all old cases; that process is still under way," said Waluyo.
Waluyo attributed blame for the delays to the extensive paperwork and procedures necessary to complete the dossiers.
Waluyo, however, did not provide details on how long it would take to finalize every dossier.
Waluyo revealed that the police were working on around 200 dossiers on crimes allegedly committed by police personnel.
"However, most of them are still with the military police, while 59 are ready to be sent to the military court. Of the 59, some 22 cases are scheduled to be resolved within the next two weeks," said Waluyo.
Besides trying Durino, the court also tried on Tuesday Chief Brig. Setiyarsa, head of the patrol unit of the city's VIP security police, who is accused of desertion from duty in 1998. The trial was held in absentia as the defendant was still at large.