SMS may damage Adiguna's case
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.