Police engage in new investigation of Ria's case

JAKARTA (JP): Following the controversial decision of the Jakarta Prosecutor's Office to drop the case against Ria Irawan last month, City Police detectives are beginning a new investigation in order to bring the starlet to the court.

"We have to start from the beginning again because everything found at the scene, even the body of the deceased, had been moved or tampered with in some way," a senior officer at the Crime Investigation Directorate of the City Police Headquarters said here yesterday.

The 24-year-old actress was accused of at least four criminal violations in relation to the death of her ex-boyfriend at her house in Lebak Bulus, South Jakarta, last January.

Last month, the city prosecutor's office announced that they had closed Ria's case due to a lack of material evidence.

The police officer, who refused to be named, said the city police detectives, under the orders of City Police Chief Maj. Gen. Mochammad Hindarto, will start their new investigation in an effort to recover evidence they believe had been near or on the body of Rifardi Soekarnoputra at the time of his death.

"We know that it will take a long time for us to carry out this investigation, but we have strongly believed since the very beginning that we're not on the wrong path," the officer said.

The only problem, he said, is that the detectives who handled the case in the earlier stages focused their investigation on murder. Rifardi was later determined to have died of a drug overdose.

"They failed to sniff out another substantial question, such as why Ria did not report the death to the police until some hours later and why the body had been cleaned up by the time the police got to the scene," the officer complained.

He said he believes that someone cleaned up the scene and the deceased to hamper and obstruct any ensuing police investigation.

The officer would give no details concerning the witnesses to be questioned, nor would he say whether the starlet would be questioned again in line with the new investigation.

"We're just starting, so let's see later," he said.

In a related development, a number of South Jakarta police detectives were seen leaving the Drug Unit office at the Crime Investigation Directorate yesterday evening.

None of them were willing to speak with reporters.

Not enough

When announcing the dropping of the case, Suyoto, head of the prosecutor's office, said: "We have reviewed the dossiers presented by police and the results of investigation from a team of prosecutors, and decided that there is not enough evidence to bring Ria Irawan to court."

"We found no compelling reason to charge Ria as there was no criminal activity involved in the youngman's death. Therefore we have dropped all charges against her," Suyoto said.

The police dossiers accused the actress of obstructing the police investigation of Rifardi's death, failing to report his possession and use of illegal drugs, tampering with and disposing of material evidence found near the deceased and destroying important material evidence believed to have caused the victim's death.

Rifardi, alias Aldi, 22, a young businessman, was found dead by Ria at her home on the morning of Jan. 12. Police records indicate that she did not report his death until four hours later.

A hospital autopsy done showed that Aldi died after ingesting a drug or drugs.

"The police failed to find the material evidence, which was believed to have been disposed of by Ria," Suyoto said.

He added that he could not blame the police, or other parties for their failure to find stronger evidence to bring Ria's case to the court. He emphasized that the two agencies had worked hard in investigating the case.

"It's not anybody's fault," Suyoto said, adding that the case will be reopened if there is any new evidence found. (bsr)