Syafiuddin was a quiet, humble person: Family
JAKARTA (JP): Before Thursday, one could only have imagined it as a scene from the movie The Godfather or from a John Grisham novel.
A judge, who handled top criminal cases and was renowned for refusing bribes, was assassinated in broad daylight during morning rush hour.
It would not happen here, we all thought - maybe in Sicily, but not here.
But on Thursday morning, Justice M. Syafiuddin Kartasasmita was fatally shot in the head and chest, while driving to work at the Supreme Court. He was 61 years old.
It was a shock, particularly for fellow law enforcers.
Syafiuddin's last position was deputy chief justice for general crimes.
He headed the panel of judges that sentenced former president Soeharto's son Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, who is still at large.
He was also a member of the panel of justices who freed Soeharto from house arrest and stipulated that the defendant should be tried once he was fit. Syafiuddin also sentenced the former president's golfing buddy, Mohammad "Bob" Hasan.
Syafiuddin had reportedly complained about how people often tried to offer him bribes.
"Bapak (father) never discussed any case he was handling with us," Syafiuddin's only son, Aries Achdiat, 25, told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
His eyes were red and his face was weary, but he was calm, no longer distraught as he was earlier on Thursday when he saw his father's body.
Aries continued that his two sisters, Anna Maria, 31 and Aida Agra Putri, 18 and himself only found out about the cases handled by his father from newspapers.
"After that we asked him about it, but he only gave brief information," said Aries, a law school graduate.
"He was just like that. Quiet, never talked much. But we got along well... He always gave us our freedom, what we wanted to do or to be," he said.
Aries then recalled how his family moved from town to town, following Syafiuddin's post as a judge before settling in the capital in the late 1980s.
He paused for a moment when asked about the most memorable father-son moment.
"We used to fish a lot, before I went to university. But then we both became busy. We didn't live in the same house anymore," said Aries, who now works in a law consultants office.
He said that the last time he saw his father before the tragedy was two weeks earlier and added that there was no hunch or sign that his father was going to die.
Aries has been living with his younger sister in a house his father bought in Depok to be near his former campus at the University of Indonesia. While Syafiuddin lived in the judicial authorities' housing complex in Sunter, North Jakarta.
"We leave it up to God, now. Yes, we are still shocked, but there's nothing else we can do...," he said.
Hundreds of people came to Syafiuddin's house on Friday to mourn.
Relatives and family who had not seen him for years poured into the house, to pay their last respects to the man they described as "quiet and modest".
"He was a deputy judge when we were posted in Ciamis, West Java. Syafiuddin never talked much, but worked hard. We worked together for just six months before he was promoted," said a colleague named Ruwiyanto, who is now retired.
Meanwhile, Syafiuddin's younger brother Saman Kartasasmita said that his late brother, while quiet, got along well with anyone, including drivers and maids.
"But he never used a driver even though his office provided this facility. He always drove himself. The driver was usually for his wife, So'imah," Saman told the Post.
Saman added that the family did not intend to sue anyone or press police to investigate the case.
"There are many cases that are important, but are never solved. We entrust it to God. We see it as a risk that came with the job. It's like the police who risk getting shot by robbers, we see it that way," he said. (hdn)