Second senior police officer exonerated in Abepura case
Second senior police officer exonerated in Abepura case
Andi Hajramurni and Nethy Dharma Somba, The Jakarta Post, Makassar, Jayapura
Ignoring mounting opposition, a Makassar human rights court again
acquitted from all charges a police officer accused of failing to
stop gross human rights violations in Abepura, Papua five years
ago.
A panel of five judges found on Friday that defendant Sr.
Comr. Daud Sihombing, then chief of the Jayapura Police, could
not be held responsible for the retaliatory raids by police that
claimed the lives of three Papuans.
On Thursday the same judges also acquitted Brig. Gen. Johny
Wainal Usman, the former chief of Jayapura Mobile Police Brigade
(Brimob).
In the court session on Friday, the judges found that the
defendant led a raid in Abepura in December 2000 in search of
villagers who earlier attacked a the town's police headquarters
and burned down a government office. That attack claimed the
lives of one police officer and one civilian.
The retaliatory police and Brimob raids saw 99 Papuans rounded
up. Three of these people died while in police custody while many
others were severely beaten or tortured.
Despite the fatalities, the panel of judges argued the
violence committed by the police, while it was in excess of
normal police operations, was not a systematic and meticulously
planned operation; a criteria for gross human rights violations.
Judges ruled the defendant must be acquitted of all charges.
Responding to the court verdict, prosecutors from the Attorney
General's Office declared they would appeal.
Shortly after hearing the final verdict, dozens of spectators
at the court room, mostly police officers, clapped happily and
approached defendant Daud Sihombing to congratulate and hug him.
Outside the court, about 100 Papuans and human rights
activists staged a angry demonstration.
Carrying a coffin, the protesters marched three kilometers
from Losari beach to the court. Unfurling banners and posters,
they also spread flowers nearby the court building, which they
said symbolized the death of justice.
A minor scuffle later occurred between police and protesters
when the demonstrators were denied access to the compound. They
were later let in under tight police guard of more than 100
officers.
Meanwhile in Jayapura, some victims of the Abepura violence
expressed their grief over the verdict.
A victim, Penias Lokpere, said that law in Indonesia was
created to protect the establishment, instead of being set up to
protect justice.