Student suspects in murder case tortured: Lawyer

JAKARTA (JP): Families, lecturers and students connected to Bogor's Juanda University told the National Commission on Human Rights yesterday that police tortured 12 students being questioned over the death of a police officer.

They visited the commission accompanied by lawyers from the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute led by Apong Herlina.

Apong said one of the students, Emon, became paralyzed because of the torture he received while being detained at the Bogor City Police Headquarters.

"One of my fellow colleagues visited him on Saturday," she said.

Emon and two of his friends, Syaifullah and Imanuddin, have been named suspects in the death of Second Lt. Dadang Rusmana, head of the Bogor city police intelligence unit, Apong said.

The nine other students were released three days after their arrest on May 9 and were only named by the police as witnesses in the case. But all of them were also badly tortured, Apong said.

The students were beaten at gunpoint and forced to admit that they killed Dadang, she explained.

Apong complained that the police arrested the students without following proper procedures, such as attaining arrest warrants.

"No lawyers were with the students during the interrogations," she said.

The university's deputy rector, M. Amin Soebianto, said his students claimed that they did not kill Dadang during a May 12 incident in front of the university's mosque.

"The students claimed to have only attacked military intelligence officer Capt. Ali because he entered the mosque without taking off his shoes," Amin said.

Police earlier said that Dadang, 43, died from a serious wound to the back of his head. The victim, who tried to rescue Ali from the student attack, was hit by a stone thrown by protesters, they said.

Capt. Ali is still under medical treatment at a hospital.

Another lawyer of the students, Esther, quoted eyewitnesses as saying Dadang's body was not at the scene when the students fled from hundreds of police and military troops entering the campus to disperse them.

"It's still unclear whether Dadang's death was caused by his head injury or another cause because we have yet to see the results of his postmortem examination. Police refused to disclose the information when we asked to see the results," Esther said.

She said there was a significant time difference between when the officers dispersed the students and when the police announced that they found Dadang dead at the scene.

She said there was a possibility that the police put Dadang's body at the scene after the students had fled.

Apong also asked the commission to order the police to stop searching for students.

"Several rented houses were messed up because police are still searching for students," she said.

Commission member Clementino dos Reis Amaral promised that the commission would soon visit the three suspects under detention to verify the reports. (jun)