Prime suspect denies killing woman and her three children

Prime suspect denies killing woman and her three children

JAKARTA (JP): A prime suspect continues to deny his
involvement in a cold-blooded homicide.

"Yes, that was my statement, but I did not tell the truth,"
Philipus repeatedly told a court here yesterday in reply to a
judge's questions.

Judge Saleh Abdurrahman was cross-checking Philipus' earlier
statements, filed in police reports, but the defendant repeated
the same answer to some two dozen questions.

Philipus, who has been charged with the slaying of Rohadi's
wife and three children showed incoherencies in his answers more
than once.

Asked by the prosecutor if he was intimidated when he made the
statement, he merely replied: "I am retracting my statement."

He told the East Jakarta court that he was under emotional and
physical duress prior to being forced to admit the crime. He said
the same thing in last week's hearing, in which he also retracted
his earlier statements to the police.

The killing, which occurred on Oct. 2 in Bambu Apus sub-
district, shook the city.

Both the team of judges and the prosecutors have focused their
questioning on whether or not the suspect was under pressure when
he made specific statements.

Philipus and four other suspects, including his wife and three
children, are being tried in separate court hearings.

Philipus was persuaded by the team of judges to tell the
truth, because conflicting statements made in previous hearings
confused the court.

The emotionally charged crowd regularly booed both the
defendant's and his lawyers' statements.

A team of judges, prosecutors and lawyers for all three
hearings of the suspects yesterday inspected the scene of the
crime and traced the route around the site.

"This case has great deal of human interest vested in it,"
Soenarto, who led the team of judges trying suspect Philipus
said.

Only remnants of Philipus' home exist, following its
destruction by an angry crowd shortly after the slayings took
place.

However, during a heated argument, Gabriel Koban, Philipus'
neighbor, refuted this yesterday in the presence of Namin, who is
head of the community unit which included Philipus' house.
Gabriel, who is also a witness in defense of Philipus, charged
that Namin was actually the instigator in the destruction of the
house.

"It was Namin who deployed his family and relatives to destroy
this house," Gabriel told The Jakarta Post.

Accusing Gabriel of starting a commotion, Namin fervently
denied the accusation. He later offered a justification for his
position.

"I could have gotten into trouble had I tried to prevent the
highly emotional crowd from expressing their anger by destroying
the house," Namin told the Post. (14)