Robbery suspects' wives seek justice

Robbery suspects' wives seek justice

JAKARTA (JP): The wives of armed robbery suspects yesterday
visited the National Commission on Human Rights in East Jakarta
seeking justice over allegations that suspect Tjetje Tadjudin
died after police torture.

Both Tjetje's wife, Tati Nuryati, and Norman Lubis' wife, each
accompanied by three relatives, were represented by lawyers
Bambang Widjojanto and a lawyer from Oemar Senoadji's office
respectively.

Tjetje's wife, Tati, with brown headscarf, looked gloomy as
she entered the meeting room. Both seemed uneasy in front of the
media and tried to hide their faces from the cameras. They did
not speak to the press before or after the meeting.

The lawyers asked the Commission to bar the press from the
meeting.

The Commission was represented by Bambang Soeharto, Soegiri,
Clementino Dos Reis Amaral, Djoko Soegianto and B.N. Marbun.

After the one-and-a-half hour meeting, Bambang Soeharto said
that based on the suspects' relatives' reports, the Commission
concluded the suspects' rights to freedom from fear and torture
were violated.

Tjetje and Norman were detained for their alleged roles in a
fatal robbery on the Jagorawi turnpike on Oct. 11 in which their
friend Zaenuddin, was shot dead.

Interrogations of Tjetje and Norman after the robbery led to
their arrest after police believed they were involved.

Police said Tjetje died last Monday. This sparked controversy
when a Bogor PMI hospital postmortem report said Tjetje was
beaten to death and did not die from respiratory problems as
police first stated.

First Lt. DT, the main suspect in Tjetje's death, has been
detained since last Friday.

Lawyer Bambang Widjojanto of the Indonesian Legal Aid
Foundation (YLBHI), said he wanted the authorities to find why
Tjetje was tortured.

"Something must be behind the torture. We assume there is a
scenario behind the coercion. We can't say it was just a
procedural error," Bambang said.

The lawyer said the victim told his relatives that First Lt.
DT had beaten him. "Tjetje also mentioned a name of a military
police officer. But it was not clear what the connection between
the military officer and the torture was," he said.

According to the lawyer, police violated legal procedures
because there was no warrant for Tjetje's arrest. "He was not
accompanied by lawyers during questioning," he said.

Norman's wife, according to Bambang Soeharto, was also unhappy
with the officers's treatment of her husband who is still in
custody. He was also tortured during questioning, Bambang
Soeharto said.

Bambang Soeharto promised the Commission would today go to the
Bogor Regency Police and the West Java Police to investigate the
case.

The Deputy Chief of the Bogor police comforted Tjetje's
relatives at 10 p.m. on Sunday, even though he was not declared
dead until 5 a.m on Monday.

"It's a bit strange" Bambang Widjojanto said. (jun)

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