Police officers testify against Yorrys Raweyai

JAKARTA (JP): The West Jakarta District Court judge called two officers yesterday to verify previous testimony by other witnesses defending Yorrys Raweyai, a prominent youth organization figure, who is charged with organizing a gambling den.

In yesterday's trial session, presiding judge Ismail Sebayang questioned the two police officers, Lieutenant Tedja Suprana and Chief Sergeant Nyamun, from city police headquarters.

The two police officers were called because all of the defendants have denied that they were gambling when the police raided the Abidin storehouse on Jl. Daan Mogot 125, West Jakarta.

Their denials contradicted their preliminary statements made at the city police headquarters.

Lt. Tedja said that in the beginning all of the suspects, including Abidin, one of the seven defendants who allegedly used his storehouse for the den, admitted that they were gambling when the police came.

"I asked Abidin whether there was any gambling going on at the time and Abidin said `yes'," Lt. Tedja testified.

Tedja told judge Ismail that Abidin voluntarily demonstrated how the suspects played the gambling games.

Chief Sgt. Nyamun, the police officer who questioned Yorrys, said that the suspect answered all 18 questions asked without making any significant denial.

"I asked him (Yorrys) standard questions like `Are you feeling well? Do you need to have your lawyer present?', before continuing to more specific questions related directly to the case. In the end I even asked him to confirm that he did not feel pressured or coerced," Nyamun said.

According to Nyamun, Yorrys told him that he did not need to be accompanied by his lawyer and he admitted that there was gambling going on with the three other suspects, Sundoro Tan, Budianto and Hadi Mustapha.

Retracted

Two defendants -- Abidin and Bock Tjin Lin -- have retracted their preliminary statement made before the police and said that their false confessions were made merely to speed up the process of interrogation.

During yesterday's trial, Yorrys told the judge that he gave the idea of making false confessions to Abidin. "Because there is a place where we could reveal the truth," Yorrys said, implying the court.

Judge Ismail adjourned the trial session to Jan. 16, when more statements from the police are to be heard.

Yorrys, the day-to-day chairman of the Pemuda Pancasila youth organization, along with 13 other alleged gamblers, was apprehended on July 29 on charges of organizing games of chance at the storehouse.

The police released seven of the suspects, of whom four were women, because they were not gambling when the police raided the house. The other seven are being tried on gambling related charges.

They are Yorrys, Sundoro Tan, Hadi Mustapha, Budianto, Abidin, Bock Tjin Lin, Halim Harto and Ng A Tjan. (mas)