Police officers deny torture accusations

JAKARTA (JP): Two police detectives told the West Jakarta District Court on Thursday that they did not physically or mentally intimidate drug defendant Donny Hendrian during the preparation of his affidavit for alleged drug possession.

Chief detectives Sgt. Soeharto and Sgt. Prijono Abdi Darmo of the West Jakarta Police, said they questioned the defendant according to police procedure.

"I did not intimidate the defendant either mentally or physically during the affidavit process.

"During the investigation, I only asked him questions and then typed out his testimony of the case," Soeharto told a hearing presided over by Judge Hadi Lelana.

The hearing was held to verify the defendant's testimony from the previous session where the defendant accused the police of torturing him during the investigation process.

The defendant accused the two questioning detectives of forcing him to make statements during the investigation process in favor of the police's interest. The investigation started on Aug. 8, 1999.

Donny said at a previous hearing that a suspected drug dealer, A Chiang, was in a different hotel room in West Jakarta when he and an alleged accomplice, Army Second Lt. Agus Isrok, were arrested by police detectives earlier on the same day in room 408.

"But the police did not put my statement about A Chiang's presence in the hotel in the dossiers," Donny said.

A Chiang is still at large.

The police seized several items from the hotel room, including 1.6 kilograms of shabu-shabu (crystal methamphetamine), 6,218 ecstasy pills, 27.9 grams of heroin and 25 sachets of valium pills.

Agus, a member of the Army's Special Force (Kopassus), is scheduled to be tried at the city's military court.

Prijono also supported Soeharto's statement, saying that the police had conducted the investigation in a professional manner.

"I feel that I did not commit the wrongdoing as accused by the defendant. We conducted the investigation according to procedure," he said.

The defendant, who was requested by Judge Hadi to respond to the witnesses' testimonies, conceded that it was not Soeharto and Prijono who intimidated him.

"But Prijono saw two other police personnel hit me during the investigation process," he said, identifying the two officers as Agung and Nyoman.

But Prijono denied it.

"I didn't see the two police personnel hit him. If it happened, it was not of my knowledge, because I was busy dealing with another five criminal cases at the time," he said.

The judge adjourned the hearing until March 20 to allow the prosecutor to read the charges. (asa)