Suspect denies role in prosecutor's murder

Ruslan Sangadji, Palu

One of the men arrested by Central Sulawesi Police and charged with the murder of prosecutor Ferry Silalahi has claimed that he was not involved, and his friends say he has an alibi.

Emil, a resident of Donggulu village some 150 kilometers from Palu, was picked up by the police on June 1 to be questioned over Ferry's murder.

The prosecutor, who has been involved in several high-profile terrorist trials, was gunned down at around 10 p.m. on May 26 after attending an evening church service in the city with his wife.

Emil, currently being detained by the police, denied on Tuesday any wrongdoing in the shooting incident.

He, his wife Hamna and several of his friends said the suspect was watching TV at his neighbor's house at the time of the murder.

"I only found out about the incident when I saw it on TV," Emil told The Jakarta Post at the Central Sulawesi Police headquarters.

His friend, Djafar, backed up Emil's claim.

"That is the reason we have come to the provincial police headquarters -- to vouch for him. It is impossible that Emil was the one who shot the prosecutor," Djafar said.

Hamnah said her husband went to his neighbor's house at 9 p.m. to watch TV on the night Ferry was killed, and returned home two hours later.

"How could they (the police) suspect him? The distance from Palu to Donggulu is about 150 kilometers. The road is bad, so it would have been impossible for my husband to have rode a motorcycle through coffee plantations and take only 30 minutes in the middle of the night," she argued.

Hamnah said her husband was just a tailor. If there were not many orders, he would tend to the family's farm and return in the afternoon to play volleyball with local youths, she added.

Emil's mother Hapiah also expressed shock at her son's arrest. "My son is a devout person. He couldn't have done anything like that," she said.

She said her family has been living in Donggulu since their house in the riot-torn regency of Poso was burned down and several of their relatives killed during the two years of sectarian fighting since 2000.

Another friend of Emil, Awad, confirmed the detained suspect was busy with his tailoring business in Donggulu.

Hamnah urged the police to release her husband because the family depended solely on him for their livelihood. "Pity my children," she said in tears, while holding her child.

Central Sulawesi Police Chief Brig. Gen. Taufik Ridha said Emil was not officially named a suspect as yet in the murder case. However, he did not say if Emil would soon be released.