Police officers deny torture accusations

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)