Police lie again over questioning of Tommy

Emmy Fitri and Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

As enforcers of the law, the police should always tell the truth. However, an officer again lied about the questioning of top detainee Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, an act which later even stirred speculation on what might be behind the repeated deceits.

City police chief of detectives Sr. Comr. Bambang Hendarso Danuri told reporters on Friday morning that the questioning of Tommy had been completed -- both on the murder of Supreme Court Justice M. Syafiuddin and the ownership of firearms -- so there would be no further questioning that day.

However, Tommy, under heavy security escort as usual, passed waiting reporters and entered the interrogation room.

A few hours later, when pressed by the reporters who had seen Tommy being led to the room, Bambang confirmed that indeed there had been an interrogation.

This is not the first time that Bambang has made a misleading statement about Tommy's questioning since he was installed as chief of detectives on Dec. 7, replacing Sr. Comr. Adang Rochjana, not long after Tommy was arrested.

The lies sparked speculation that the police might have a hidden agenda to create a situation that could benefit Tommy during the questioning.

It was not the substance of the questioning that mattered as the public, too, understood that it should be kept confidential. But what was strange was the simple fact that the police even lied about whether Tommy had been questioned in the first place.

Meanwhile, city police deputy spokesman Comr. Alex Mandalika rejected the allegations, stating that officer Bambang had only tried to abide by the Criminal Code procedure and other police investigation technical procedures.

Alex further explained that although Tommy's status was as a suspect, the police too had to respect his rights and uphold the presumption of innocence until proved guilty.

"The questioning itself is not matter for public discussion," Alex concluded at the end.

A reporter from an Internet news provider assumed that such a move might have been engineered by the National Police Headquarters.

"It must have been set up by headquarters, given that all the top-ranking police officers have been replaced by officers from the same group," he speculated.

Coming from the same group might help them deal consistently with cases, rather than if they had come from a different group.

Bambang was a 1974 graduate, similar to the Jakarta Police chief designate Insp. Gen. Makbul Padmanagara.

Outgoing city police chief Insp. Gen. Sofjan Jacoeb was a 1971 graduate, while his former chief of detectives, Adang, graduated in 1975.

The new duo of Makbul and Bambang was probably implementing a new tactic in police dealings with the media over Tommy's case, an approach that is totally different from that used by their predecessors.

Sources said that Sofjan was removed from his post because he was "too outspoken about the way the police were handling Tommy's case," and apparently could not balance his leadership style with Adang's, who always worked in a more low-key fashion, only discussing matters publicly after they had been resolved.