Police did not torture wtness: Court

The South Jakarta District Court rejected on Monday a lawsuit against the police that was filed by the lawyer of Rahmat Hidayat, a witness in Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra's case who is being detained for alleged perjury.

Judge Syamsul Ali said Rahmat's lawyers, from Nudirman Munir and Associates, did not have the right to sue the police over what they claimed was the illegal arrest and detention of their client.

"The power of attorney used by Nudirman Munir and Associates was actually given by the plaintiff Rahmat Hidayat only to represent him during questioning at the police headquarters," he told the court.

Munir is a former lawyer for Tommy.

The judge, too, brushed aside the plaintiffs' accusation that the police had tortured him during questioning as Rahmat's father M. Alimi and his wife Ida Safrida said that Rahmat looked healthy and had never complained about being handled roughly.

Rahmat and Tatang Somantri, both former security guards of Soeharto family-owned Cemara Apartment, were arrested by the police four days after they took the witness stand in Tommy's hearing on April 10 at the Central Jakarta District Court.

They said they lied under oath in court upon the orders of Tommy's lawyer, Elza Syarief, who gave them Rp 2 million each.

In the hearing, they retracted their statements about Tommy's involvement in the illegal possession of firearms and ammunition, which were seized in a raid by the police at the apartments when they searched for Tommy last year.

They, too, denied that they had signed statements made in the presence of police officers. -- JP