Rights association accuses security personnel of torture

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI) filed a complaint on Wednesday to the National Commission on Human Rights over alleged torture by security officers of eight suspects in the Jakarta Stock Exchange bombing incident.

"Several military and police personnel tortured the suspects in order to make them testify in accordance with what they wanted," Johnson Panjaitan who led a team of PBHI's lawyers told the commission.

He accused the officers of torturing the suspects -- Nuryadin, Sergeant Irwan, Corporal Ibrahim Hasan, Tengku Ismahmudi Jafar, Iswadi H. Jamil, M. Mudin, and Saifan Nudin -- during initial questioning from Sept. 20 to Sept. 30 last year.

He said that the suspects were tortured at the initial hearing at Ciganjur Subprecinct Police office, at city police headquarters and at Military Police headquarters.

They tortured the suspects in various ways, such as shooting the suspects with a gun, burning them with cigarette butts, hurting them with machetes, beating and electrocuting them. The anus of one suspect was even stabbed with a rod until it bled, he said.

"Therefore, we ask the Commission to investigate the police and military personnel who committed human right abuses against our clients," he said.

Eleven people were killed and dozens of others injured in the blast at the Jakarta Stock Exchange building in Central Jakarta last September.

Johnson also asked the Commission to issue a recommendation requesting the South Jakarta District Court to suspend the trial of the JSX bombing suspects, scheduled on April 9.

He said the lawyers would also file a complaint with the international anti-torture commission.

Asmara Nababan, a member of the Commission, pledged to look into the matter.

"If we find any indication of human rights abuses by the police and military personnel, we will conduct an investigation," he said.

Nababan promised to recommend to the South Jakarta District Court to suspend the bombing case trial if there is evidence of human rights violations during the police's initial questioning. (01)