Police reopening old cases against Gus Dur

JAKARTA (JP): After long being on the back burner, the National Police have recently decided to revive the investigation of a number of old cases against former president Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid.

"We have studied all the cases and we think that the public are entitled to legal certainty with regard to the complaints they made to us," National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Didi Widayadi told reporters last week.

The old cases include the defamation complaints filed by Parni Hadi, the former chief of the state news agency Antara, in May 2000 following his dismissal, and by Soeripto, the suspended secretary-general of the forestry ministry, in February 2001.

But why now?

Didi has flatly denied the rumors that the police are seeking revenge against Abdurrahman, or Gus Dur as he is familiarly known, by reviving the old cases against him.

Soeripto's lawyer Effendi Saman commented, "I think it is because now Bimantoro has confidence about his own position and there are no political barriers preventing the police from summoning Gus Dur."

"I doubted that the police would act upon our case at the time it was filed. But I had confidence that once Gus Dur resigned, our case, which has been left sitting for six months by the police, would be reopened and seriously addressed," Effendi told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

National Police chief Bimantoro, who replaced Gen. Rusdihardjo last Sept. 18, has confirmed the police plan.

He himself was involved in various standoffs with Gus Dur, including disagreements over the then president's order to arrest the fugitive Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, the president's security policy in Aceh and his plan to issue an emergency decree as a way of dissolving the House of Representatives and the People's Consultative Assembly, both of which were planning to impeach him.

Bimantoro was eventually sacked for refusing to resign only days before Gus Dur was replaced as president by Megawati Soekarnoputri. But Bimantoro, with the support of both the House and the People's Consultative Assembly, refused to obey the president's order, forcing Gus Dur to appoint Chaeruddin Ismail to take command of the police with the rank of deputy chief of the National Police.

Lawyer Effendi did not rule out the possibility that his client's action was being used by the police to exact revenge on Gus Dur, but said that whatever the motive behind the reopening of his client's case, he strongly welcomed it.

"But we don't want to be involved in any kind of police revenge. My sole objective is that my client's complaint is processed by the police," he said.

He said that police should be careful about trying to reopen old cases. "The Police should not misuse their current political freedom."

When asked to comment, Soeripto admitted that he was happy to hear that his case was to be reopened. "Whatever their motive, I I appreciate it and look forward to cooperating with them (the police)," Soeripto told the Post.

Separately, Parni's lawyer R. Akbar Lubis said that he also welcomed the reopening of his client's case as long as the move was made in accordance with the law.

"What we report to the police has to be separated from any political or other interests so that whatever the motives behind the police initiative are, we hope that the police only take the side of legal necessity," he stressed.

Akbar said that the police should never delay the investigation of complaints for as long as they had been doing under Gus Dur's administration as what was at issue was the right of members of the public to see justice being done.

"We only hope that there will be no more people like us waiting for 18 months to have their complaints processed," Akbar remarked.

"We're glad that the police are finally going to deal with our complaint. But we don't want them (the police) using such complaints as ammunition to exact revenge against others," he concluded. (emf)