'Police responsible for Bogor detainee's death'

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) says the death of a robbery suspect in Bogor police custody must be thoroughly investigated.

The foundation's operational secretary, Munir, said Cece Tajudin was a police detainee so anything that happened to him was the police's responsibility.

Cece, a father of three, and friend Norman Lubis, were accused of being involved in a fatal robbery on the Jagorawi toll road on Oct. 11.

They were detained after being questioned over the robbery of Zaenuddin Lesmana, who was in the same car as them when the robbery occurred. The two suspects told police they accompanied Zaenuddin, a private firm employee, from the Bogor BRI bank where he withdrew Rp 650 million. They said a Kijang van intercepted their car, and three men, one of them with a gun, jumped out of the van. Cece and Norman said the armed man smashed the rear windshield of Zaenuddin's Hyundai sedan then shot Zaenuddin.

The robbers stole Rp 350 million from the trunk of Zaenuddin's car.

Police were suspicious because Cece and Norman, who sat in the rear seats, were unhurt, while the armed man shot Zaenuddin from behind.

Cece told police the armed man, identified only as S, an Army sergeant, was his friend.

Based on their statements, police detained them hours after the shooting.

On Monday Bogor police chief Col. Dadang Garnida announced that Cece was dead. He said the suspect died on the way to PMI hospital from the police lockup.

According to Munir, the victim's wife said Cece's body was bruised.

The doctor in charge of the postmortem agreed Cece's body was bruised.

Dr. Budi Sampurno said parts of victim's body had been damaged by hard objects.

Meanwhile, Head of the National Police Crime Investigation Directorate, Brig. Gen. Rusdihardjo, told The Jakarta Post in Antalya, Turkey, yesterday that Cece might have been brutally battered while in police custody.

"I've just received this information from my staff in Jakarta which made me really shocked and upset," said Rusdihardjo, who is attending the week-long Interpol meeting.

"I've ordered the Bogor police to question everybody, including the police members and those who had visited Cece," said Rusdihardjo.

Cece's body was buried in Bekasi, West Java, on Tuesday, under tight security. Police who handed over the corpse told relatives they could just bury the body and not open the cover. However, Cece's mother insisted, to make sure it was her son's body. She, along with some neighbors, uncovered the shroud and found Cece's face was severely bruised.

One of the police officers, who had brought Cece's body, said Cece suffered from serious illness. This conflicts with statements from relatives and neighbors who said Cece was very active in sports, like tennis and badminton. "We had never heard that Cece was sick," neighbors was quoted by Kompas as saying on Tuesday.

Lawsuit

Cece's relatives, seemed frightened of talking to the press yesterday and refused to say if they would to file a lawsuit against the police.

Toto Sugiarto, Cece's younger brother, who talked to the press after Cece's Tuesday burial, was tight-lipped yesterday.

Reliable sources, close to the relatives, said Cece's relatives would file a suit against the police with the Administrative Court and send a complaint to the National Commission on Human Rights.

Earlier, relatives said they received no warrants from the police about Cece's arrest. They said Cece had been transferred to the military police lockup. Bogor police sources confirmed this.

Munir, of YLBHI, said Cece's death showed how poor suspect protection was. "According to the criminal code, a detainee should be free from any kind of threat, violence and unlawful arrest and detention as presumption of innocence must be performed".

"As investigators, police are expected to stick to the code of ethics," Munir said.

Col. Dadang Garnida vowed on Tuesday to take stern action against any of his subordinates who violated the law and caused Cece's death.

He said he had suspended the chief of Bogor's police detectives and other officers over the case. "I will have all unscrupulous officers punished," Dadang said. (team)