Police have satisfied requirements in Adiguna case file
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.