SMS may damage Adiguna's case
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Prosecutors introduced new evidence in the murder trial of wealthy businessman Adiguna Sutowo on Tuesday.
The six-strong prosecution team, led by Andi Herman, submitted to the Central Jakarta District Court a cell phone allegedly belonging to Adiguna's driver, Haidar, containing a text message sent from a number belonging to someone identified as Abu that read: "Secure everything, including the media. Mr. Ponco already knows about the problem and has to prepare money for protection".
Ponco Sutowo, who is Adiguna's older brother, is the majority shareholder in the Hilton Hotel, Central Jakarta, where the New Year's Day murder occurred at a club in the hotel.
Besides the cell phone, the prosecution also presented the unlicensed gun and the bullet that killed 25-year-old Yohanes Brachmans Hairudy Natong, a college student working as a waiter in the club, plus 19 bullets of the same type that had been flushed down the toilet of the hotel suite where Adiguna was staying at the time in question.
Adiguna, 46, has been charged with the shooting dead of Natong over a Rp 150,000 bar bill on Jan. 1.
Adiguna has disavowed all the evidence, except for the shirt and pants that he was wearing at the time, and several blood- stained hotel towels, which police tests show contained Adiguna's blood.
The court, presided over by Judge Lilik Mulyadi, also heard the testimony of three witnesses in the case.
The first witness to testify was police officer Centike Bossayor, who said that the Fluid Club, where the shooting took place at about 5 a.m., was locked shut when she arrived at about 8:30 a.m.
She said the police had been informed of the shooting at 6:30 a.m. She first went to check Natong's body, which had been taken to the nearby Dr. Mintoharjo Naval Hospital in Bendungan Hilir.
Former Tanah Abang police chief Comr. Ahmad Rifai, whose jurisdiction at the time included the hotel, said that police intelligence had informed him that "the shooter was staying at the hotel".
Under cross-examination by lawyer Mohammad Assegaf, Rifai admitted that the information only gave the number of the room where Adiguna Sutowo was staying with three other people, but did not mention the shooter's name or sex.
The next witness, hotel security guard Toto Harto, refuted a statement in the police case file saying that he was the person who had found the 19 bullets in the suite's toilet.
"The police were the ones who discovered them at 6:30 p.m., not at 3 p.m. as stated," he said.
The trial was adjourned until Thursday to hear the testimony of two further witnesses.
Adiguna has been charged with unpremeditated murder, which is punishable by 15 years in prison, and the possession of an unlicensed firearm, which carries a life sentence.