Police officer guilty of destroying evidence

YOGYAKARTA (JP): The Bantul district court has found Sgt. Maj. Edy Wuryanto, an officer at the Bantul police precinct, guilty of destroying evidence in the murder case of journalist Fuad Muhammad Syafruddin.

Presiding judge Mikaela W. told the court that Edy had floated a portion of the victim's blood out to sea and threw the remainder in the garbage bin. The lawsuit was filed by Fuad's widow, Marsiyem.

Yogyakarta Police Chief Col. Mulyono Sulaiman confirmed in November that the act took place between Aug. 22 and Aug. 23 last year.

Edy had argued that he floated the blood out to Parangtritis beach, some 30 km south of here, in the Javanese tradition of melabuh, in the hope that divine intervention would help solve the murder.

The act had "hurt the feelings of another person" and Edy had to be held accountable for it, the judges concluded in the two- hour trial session held in a packed, tightly guarded courtroom.

The judges ruled that Edy had to publicly apologize to the plaintiff and pay the Rp 51,500 (US$21) court fee.

Marsiyem had earlier demanded moral and material damages of Rp 105 million. The court, however, ruled that "the blood did not have economic value".

"The defendant had committed an act which humiliated and hurt the feelings of a person, he therefore has to apologize publicly through one of the Yogyakarta-based mass media," Mikaela said.

Edy was a second plaintiff. Marsiyem also sued the national police chief but the court dismissed the lawsuit on the ground that Edy floated the blood sample on his own initiative.

The police officer is considering whether to accept or appeal the ruling.

Marsiyem sued the police for failing to return the blood sample, concerned that they might have used it to create evidence by spilling some of it on certain objects, in order to convict suspect Dwi Sumaji.

Fuad, better known as Udin, was attacked by unidentified thugs at his home on Aug. 13 in Bantul regency. He died three days later.

Fuad was believed to have been killed because of his critical reporting. His case has drawn wide attention given the suspected links with powerful figures in Yogyakarta. (23/swe)