Suspect was asleep: Witness

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)