Suspect was asleep: Witness

JAKARTA (JP): A witness for the defendant in the cold-blooded murder of a housewife and her three children told a court hearing yesterday that he was the first to inform the defendant about the killings.

Gabriel Ola Koban, a neighbor of the prime suspect, Philipus, told the East Jakarta district court that after seeing the corpse of a child lying near the front door of a house he ran to tell Philipus about the murder.

"Philipus is my friend and I had no other intention for wanting to tell him about the murder," Gabriel testified.

Gabriel added that Philipus's family members, his wife Suparmi and his niece Susanna, were watching television when he arrived at their house. Suparmi told Gabriel that Philipus was asleep when he asked about Philipus' whereabouts.

"Suparmi then woke Philipus up, and after I told him the news I ran home to change my clothes and returned to the crime site," Gabriel added.

The woman and three of her five children were brutally murdered in their home on Oct. 2, 1995, in the Bambu Apus subdistrict of East Jakarta.

Meanwhile, a forensic expert was brought in to give the court a general background about the function and necessities of a postmortem.

Abdul Muin Idris from the University of Indonesia medical school said that a postmortem equates authentic evidence because it is impossible to present mutilated corpses in court.

According to Abdul, the postmortem covers information about a victim's identification as well as estimated time, cause and method of death.

The court hearings to try suspect Philipus and his wife, Suparmi, were both adjourned until Thursday.(14)