Police officers testify against Yorrys Raweyai
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)