Police have met requirement in Adiguna case file: Prosecutor
Police have met requirement in Adiguna case file: Prosecutor
Abdul Khalik
The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
Jakarta prosecutors say the police's case file against murder
suspect Adiguna Sutowo now meets their requirements but they are
still unsure whether there is enough evidence to press charges
against him.
"The police have completed what we asked them to, but on
Friday had not decided whether we had enough evidence to bring
the case to court. We should be able to decide by Monday," office
assistant Farried Haryanto said.
Police resubmitted the case file of Adiguna, the only suspect
in the murder of waiter Yohannes Berchmans Haerudy Natong alias
Rudy on Jan. 1, to the Jakarta prosecutor's office on Tuesday.
Police said they had submitted additional documents and
witnesses' affidavits prosecutors had asked for earlier.
Farried, however, denied reports that prosecutors had declared
the current case file from police complete.
"No, we haven't declared it complete. If it is complete then
the announcement must come from me. Right now, I haven't declared
anything yet. Call me on Monday morning, and I will tell you," he
told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.
Based on an interview with Comr. Andre Wibowo, a police
officer from city police headquarters, several media reported
earlier that prosecutors considered Adiguna's case file complete.
Farried said police had submitted an explanation from
ballistics and forensics experts to settle a contradiction
between witnesses and forensic tests on the distance between
alleged killer Adiguna and victim Rudy.
In the first case file that prosecutors returned to police two
weeks ago, witnesses said that Rudy was killed at a distance of
about one meter, while laboratory tests suggest that Rudy was
shot from several meters away as there was no traces of gun
powder on the victim's body.
It is still unknown how police have reconciled the conflicting
statements.
Farried said that police had also submitted documents about
the legal status of the gun and court documents on the
confiscation of the evidence his office had asked for.
He added that should his office declare Adiguna's case file
complete on Monday, the police must immediately hand over all
evidence and the suspect to them.
Adiguna, who is currently being held at city police
headquarters, is the son of tycoon Ibnu Sutowo, a former
president of state oil and gas company Pertamina and a brother of
businessman Ponco Sutowo, the owner of the Hilton hotel, where
the fatal shooting took place.
He has been charged with Article 338 of the Criminal Code on
murder, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison,
along with Article 1 of the Emergency Law No. 12/1951 on illegal
possession of firearms, which carries the maximum punishment of
life in jail.