Prosecutors not satisfied, return files to police
Prosecutors not satisfied, return files to police
JAKARTA (JP): The Bekasi prosecutors' office has returned the dossiers of the men accused of the Acan gang rape and robbery to the local police, an official said.
Spokesman of the Attorney General's office, Pontas Pasaribu, said that the dossiers were given back to the police because of incompleteness.
Pasaribu gave no further details.
Bekasi police chief Lt. Col. Elfrizo Tobing said, however, denied that the dossiers had been returned.
"How could they (the prosecutors) hand the dossiers back to us if they said earlier that the documents were already complete?" Tobing asked in an interview with The Jakarta Post.
Moreover, the prosecutors office had already received all the material evidence and the suspects along with the dossiers at that time, said the newly-appointed chief.
Tobing said that all of the 11 suspects, who are between range 17 and 23 years of age, are now in the prosecutors' custody.
The case of the gang rape and robbery of Acan's wife and two teenage daughters in July in a small village near Bekasi, 30 kilometers south of here, is facing another problem.
The story
About two months ago, visitors attacked the nine lawyers of the 11 suspects twice during the hearing of an unlawful arrest suit filed against the police in the Bekasi local court.
The defense lawyers withdrew their lawsuit against the local police, saying that the authorities had failed to protect them.
The court plans to begin the trial in the middle of this month. The trial is scheduled to take place at the Bekasi Civil Servants' Hall, instead of the court, following the mob attack on the lawyers.
The defense lawyers have asked for the trial to be conducted in Jakarta, considering that they have been also terrorized by anonymous telephone calls.
The chief secretary of the district court, J.A. Situru, said on Tuesday that the decision on the venue of the trial was made on the basis that the local courthouse would be unable to accommodate the huge number of people expected to attend the trial. The building is also under renovation.
"We are constructing rooms at the hall for the trial, it will be like a courthouse," he said.
According to a source at he prosecutors office, at least 100 anti-riot police will stand guard at the trial. (bsr/imn)