To save justice

Noted jurists, human rights activists and the general public alike united on Monday to express their joy after public prosecutors in Bantul, Yogyakarta province, bravely demonstrated their determination to defend justice.

The prosecutors, in a rare show of courage, dropped the case against an innocent citizen accused of murdering a journalist last year. They also called on the Bantul District Court, which heard the controversial case, to free him of all charges as there was insufficient evidence to sentence him.

Standing trial was Dwi Sumadji, alias Iwik, whose case sent shock waves throughout the nation. From the early days of the police investigation, most thinking people had come to believe that this driver for a small advertising agency had been made the victim of some dirty business to protect the real culprit.

The murder of the Bernas daily journalist came after the paper carried his report on corrupt practices at the local regency administration. The Indonesian Journalists Association believes that the murder was related to the report.

During the trial the Bantul court heard how a police officer allegedly made up charges and pressed them on Iwik using improper methods to trap the suspect in order to save an official of the regency. The police also reportedly resorted to inhumane tactics to extract the "confessions" they wanted from Iwik.

The public was at a loss as to how this could have happened in a country which respects the principles of humanitarianism and human rights. And what had happened to our principles of presumption of innocence and equal justice before the law?

However, the loud applause of experts and human rights activists in greeting this surprising turn of events shows how weak we have been in upholding justice and opposing abuse of power.

If the prosecutors had been this courageous from the beginning, this parody of justice would not have progressed so far. The question now is how many other people have been unlawfully jailed? For sure it is not only Sengkon and Karta, two villagers from the outskirts of Jakarta, who although they maintained their innocence, were jailed for years for murder two decades ago, until they themselves found the real murderer who was serving a jail term for another offense in the same prison in Cipinang, East Jakarta. Had the prosecutors not decided to make a stand, Iwik might have been executed by firing squad for premeditated murder.

The Bantul court will soon hand down a verdict on Iwik's case. But after the prosecutors' request Monday, many experts are convinced that the panel of judges will agree with the prosecutors' conclusion and free the poor villager.

Does that mean that the case is closed? The answer is of course no because the people are dissatisfied with the investigation and are concerned about possible manipulation and irregularities.

The experts, who praised the prosecutors exemplary valor, have urged the authorities to send any police officer found to be involved in coercion and brutality to court for trial because nobody is above the law. The trial is important not only to uncover the reason why the police tried to victimize an innocent citizen, but also who ordered them to do so.

The court also needs to hear why an official said that the regent of Bantul would reward Iwik if he confessed to the murder. Meanwhile experienced lawyers have also said that they believe that police-engineering of the charges was not mere carelessness, but was well-planned.

However, despite the prosecutors' bold action, we believe the nation can now expect the Yogyakarta journalist's murder to remain a dark case, just like that of Marsinah, a labor activist, who was brutally murdered in East Java in 1993. There are still people around us who dictate the law.