Police moving slowly in Yorrys new case

JAKARTA (JP): Police are finding it slow going in investigations hoped to link Yorrys Raweyai of the Pemuda Pancasila organization to a series of crimes, including the smuggling of alcoholic beverages.

City Police Chief Maj. Gen. Mochammad Hindarto told reporters here yesterday that the only strong evidence of crime collected by the city police is related to Yorrys' alleged gambling activities and the torture leading to the death of a servant in September of last year.

The day-to-day chairman of the country's powerful youth organization is currently being tried for his alleged connections to a gambling operation in West Jakarta.

Yorrys and a number of the organization executives are believed to have been involved in fatal beating of the servant. That killing is still being investigated, with some of the suspects, along with Yorrys himself, already in city police custody.

So far Yorrys' has yet to admit having played a role in the assault that led to the servant's death.

"We don't need his confession because some of the other suspects and witnesses have pointed him out as the plotter of the torture," Hindarto said.

The 23-year-old servant, Djasman, was believed to have kidnapped and killed the two-and-a-half-year-old son of a top executive of the organization last September. Several of its activists found and beat the servant in Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta.

The group later handed over the dying servant to the City Police Headquarters with one of his ears missing and serious internal injuries due to the beating. A few days afterwards, police announced the death of the servant at the Kramat Jati police hospital, saying that it was "due to torture by an angry mob who found him in Pasar Minggu."

Not long afterwards, the police announced the closure of the case, saying that the law could not try a group of people.

Untouchable

The case was opened again last month following the arrest of Yorrys for his alleged role in the gambling den. A number of his accomplices, who were identified by Djasman before he died, have been arrested. Their confessions have implicated Yorrys.

The public has questioned why the police froze the case for almost a year and have only now arrested Yorrys, who is widely known as an "untouchable" figure.

Hindarto said: "It's just an incidental matter."

He added that the city police are still gathering information and collecting material evidence on Yorrys' alleged role in other crimes, including the smuggling of alcoholic beverages.

"Whatever information we get, we will act on it immediately," he said.

Sources said that most of the illegal drinks Yorrys is believed to have smuggled into the country were distributed to hotels, restaurants and bars in and around the city.

In line with the intensive police effort to tie Yorrys to as many cases as they can prove, two detectives were assigned to leave for Singapore last week to collect information about the killing of a noted gambling operator, who was stabbed by a group of people in April.

The progress of their mission has yet to be been announced.

Wonder

Critics, who highly appreciate the recent city police maneuvering in the Yorrys investigation, estimate that the officers will eventually run into a powerful barrier due to a number of important figures playing behind the scene.

Late last week, Yapto Suryosumarno, the number one person at Pemuda Pancasila, went to see Hindarto at the City Police Headquarters.

When asked about the meeting yesterday, Hindarto refused to comment on what he had discussed with Yapto.

But a reliable police source said Yapto attempted to make sure that he is not the next target of the massive police operation against organized crime in the city.

"If you have committed no crime, you have nothing to be worried about," the source quoted Hindarto as saying during the meeting, which was sponsored by a noted figure. (bsr)