Student suspects in murder case tortured: Lawyer

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)