Police moving slowly in Yorrys new case

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)