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)