Progress slow in coming in case against Pemuda Pancasila executives
Progress slow in coming in case against Pemuda Pancasila executives
JAKARTA (JP): City police say they are determined to bring to
trial three executives of the Pemuda Pancasila youth organization
in connection with the fatal torture and beating of a servant in
1993.
"We are still completing the dossiers and we have no intention
of closing the case," City Police Spokesman Lt. Col. Bambang
Permantoro told The Jakarta Post yesterday.
Bambang said he agreed that the two years the police have
spent completing the dossiers was rather too long a time. He said
the delay had been because the suspects were also implicated in
other cases.
One of the Pemuda Pancasila executives facing prosecution,
Yorrys Raweyai, has challenged the police to bring the case to
court as soon as possible so that he can prove that he is
innocent.
Yorrys said that the long time taken to complete the dossiers
had created uncertainty and misled the public into thinking that
the case would be dropped.
Bambang refused to give details as to why it has taken the
police two years to complete the dossiers. "But, we'll try to
speed up the process," he said.
As a result of the slow completion of the dossiers, Yorrys,
the day-to-day chairman of the organization, has said he will sue
the police for libel for implicating him in the beating.
"I'm preparing to sue the city police for libel because the
police have taken too long to complete dossiers on my case. This
hurts my good name and makes me unable to clear my position in
court," Yorrys said last week.
According to Yorrys, the police should have completed their
dossiers on the September 1993 killing of servant Djasman, aged
23.
The servant is believed to have kidnapped and killed the two-
and-a-half year old son of his employer, Cornelius Simandjuntak,
the secretary of the North Jakarta branch of Pemuda Pancasila.
The other two suspects are identified as Ruhut Sitompoel, who
is a lawyer, and Gunung Hutapea. Both of them are executives of
the youth organization.
The servant was strongly suspected of having kidnapped and
murdered Simandjuntak's boy in Depok, 30 kilometers south of
Jakarta, on Sept. 7, 1993.
The police reported a month after his death that Djasman died
in a police hospital from severe injuries that occurred before he
was arrested. Police claim that the servant was already seriously
wounded and was missing one of his ears when he given into police
custody by people who found him in Pasar Minggu. (bsr)