Theo questioned again to confirm his voice
Theo questioned again to confirm his voice
JAKARTA (JP): Jakarta Police summoned former chief of the
Udayana regional military command Lt. Gen. (ret.) Theo Syafei
again on Monday to confirm whether a controversial speech
recording was really his voice.
Theo was currently being questioned in relation to reports
accusing him of spreading anti-Muslim information and fomenting
hatred against Islam.
Neither Theo nor his lawyers were willing to comment on the
voice in the cassettes after the six-hour questioning.
"I don't want to comment on whether it's my voice or not. I've
given my answers to the police," Theo told reporters.
One of Theo's lawyers, Didi Supriyanto, said the police should
check the cassettes to rule out the possibility of the voice
being engineered.
"What can't be produced by a sound laboratory now? Even the
voice of Nat King Cole, who died several years ago, could be
united with his daughter's voice," Didi said.
He believed that police would examine the evidence at the
police laboratory in line with standard procedure.
"Answers from my client concerning the cassettes will not help
the police if they get false evidence," he said.
Theo was accused of insulting Muslims in his speech before a
group of Christian youths at a church in Kupang, East Nusa
Tenggara.
The speech was believed to have fueled Christian resentment
which lead to the riot in Kupang on Nov. 30 between Muslims and
Christians.
Theo's speech was reportedly recorded and distributed to the
public under the label: "Theo's Islam Phobia."
Theo, who recently joined the Indonesian Democratic Party
(PDI) lead by Megawati Soekarnoputri, was also questioned about
his political activity in the party and the possibility that he
made political speeches on behalf of his new party.
"Police also asked Pak Theo about PDI and any speeches he made
after he joined the party," Didi said.
However, Didi also speculated about the possibility that
certain parties wanted to benefit from Theo's conviction to
discredit PDI.
It was reported earlier that Megawati issued a statement to
say Theo's case had nothing to do with her party.
Theo, a top figure in the Armed Forces (ABRI), once served a
brief stint in the ABRI faction in the House of Representatives
(DPR) before he fell out of favor in 1997 for criticizing former
president Soeharto.
City police spokesman Lt. Col. Zainuri Lubis confirmed that
Monday's summons was the second time police had questioned Theo on
the matter, the first session was last Thursday.
"He (Theo) will be invited again if police need more
information from him," Zainuri said, adding that Theo was to be
questioned again on Thursday. (emf)