Police's arrest of Petrus unlawful: Court
Police's arrest of Petrus unlawful: Court
JAKARTA (JP): The South Jakarta District Court issued a ruling
on Friday declaring the city police arrest of lawyer Petrus Bala
Pattyona on Dec. 14 as unlawful.
Judge Soedarto said in a hearing of a pretrial lawsuit that
the city police did not have the authority to rule that the
document, presented by Petrus before a separate hearing in the
courtroom earlier, was fake.
"It is the court's authority to declare whether the document
was real or fake," said Soedarto, while adding that the
announcement must be made at a separate hearing.
The lawsuit was filed on Dec. 20 by Petrus against city police
chief Maj. Gen. Noegroho Djajoesman.
The city police chief was represented by lawyer Capt. Pali,
while Petrus was by, among others, lawyer Trimedya Panjaitan.
The disputed document was a handwritten testimony by Ahian
Santoso, alias Yeye, a boyfriend of drug suspect Zarina Mirafsur.
Zarina and Yeye were arrested, along with eight other
suspects, by the city police last November in an apartment in
West Jakarta for alleged drug use and possession.
Zarina repeatedly insisted that the shabu-shabu (crystal
methamphetamine) seized by the police after the arrest was owned
by Yeye.
In a police report, Yeye claimed that the drugs were owned by
Zarina. But Soedarto said Yeye later signed a written testimony,
witnessed by Zarina's lawyers Ali Mazi and Roy Rening, stating
that he owned the drugs.
"It shows that the authenticity of the document remains
unclear," said Soedarto, adding that it would need another court
hearing to determine the document's authenticity.
Soedarto rejected the police's defense statement for the
arrest, which said the police caught Petrus red-handed.
Paragraph 2 of Article 18 of the Criminal Code stipulates that
the police do not need a warrant when they catch a suspect red-
handed.
"Although the police can argue that they have lawfully
arrested the plaintiff red-handed, they still can't rule the
document is fake since the authenticity of the document is
unclear," Soedarto said.
"Therefore, the arrest was unlawful."
In response to Petrus' demand that the city police publish a
statement of apology in local and overseas media, Soedarto said
that was too much.
"The Criminal Code has yet to rule on such a rehabilitation
procedure," he said without elaborating.
Several plainclothes detectives arrested Petrus on Dec. 14,
shortly after the latter attended a pretrial lawsuit filed by his
client Mirafsur Khan, Zarina's father, against the city police.
Petrus represented Mirafsur, who filed suit last month to
demand the court declare the city police's move to arrest his
daughter on Nov. 11 as unlawful.
The court ruled in favor of the city police, and declared the
arrest was lawful at a hearing held at the South Jakarta district
court on Dec. 17.
Petrus said he was satisfied with the pretrial verdict.
"This should be a lesson to the police that they must obey
laws and procedures in the future," he said after the
hearing. (asa)