YLBHI ready to defend general's killer
YLBHI ready to defend general's killer
JAKARTA (JP): A legal aid foundation yesterday pledged to defend and accompany the four young men accused by the police in the killing of Brig. Gen. TMF Tampubolon at their interrogation sessions.
"We've discussed this matter with a number of lawyers in this city and will soon offer our free services to the four suspects, particularly to accompany them during the questioning as allowed by our law," YLBHI executive director Mulyana W. Kusumah told The Jakarta Post.
The Army brigadier general, according to the official theory, was stabbed 11 times by two of the four suspects after a heated argument on Jl. Griya Wartawan in Cipinang Muara, East Jakarta, on Monday night.
Tampubolon, 54, was an expert staff on economic affairs to the ABRI Chief and a former intelligence deputy assistant to ABRI's chief of general affairs. He was a group commander for one of ABRI's four elite red beret Kopassus squads. He also played some role in mediating the dispute at the Toba Batak Christian Church in Sumatra.
The incident occurred at around 10 p.m. Monday, about five minutes after Tampubolon received a call from an unidentified party and hurriedly left his house at the Army housing complex.
According to Mulyana, lawyers are required by law to accompany suspects during questioning at the police station. The requirement is to prevent pressure, including torture, by the investigators.
Marsinah
Mulyana said he was worried that if the four are unaccompanied by lawyers during the interrogation, the torture used on the suspects to gain confessions in the celebrated Marsinah murder could happen again.
The police have said that Marsinah, a labor activist, was killed as part of a conspiracy by the executives at her watch making factory. The National Commission on Human Rights, however, believes that not all is right at the controversial trials of the accused killers.
The Commission stated that its fact-finding team in Surabaya, East Java, found indications that the suspects were tortured and that some of their rights had been denied during their arrests and subsequent interrogation.
Mulyana said that as this time the case involved the killing of a general, the police should handle it carefully and properly.
"We all hope the killing is a real crime, but there are still possibilities of certain motives behind it. Therefore, the police should make the killing clear," Mulyana, also a criminologist, said, although he refused to clarify his view about possible motives.
"The police, for instance, should also reveal all that happened before and after the incident in such a way that would support their theory and bury the other versions reported by many of the media," the lawyer said.
The police version says that Tampubolon was driven by one of the two police officers of the nearby Kebon Nanas police subprecinct to the UKI hospital before the general died half an hour later, he said.
Reports however quoted the two police officers as saying that they both can not drive.
"The police should reveal the complete and logical, as well as reliable story of the killing to help bury the media versions, which might be true," Mulyana said.
The general, bleeding heavily, drove his sedan to the police subprecinct, a kilometer away, to report the attack.
Based on the autopsy issued by doctors at the Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital, Tampubolon's death was caused by the nine severe stabs under his right armpit, City Police chief Maj. Gen. Mochammad Hindarto told a press conference on Wednesday.
Pre-reconstruction
On Thursday at around 4 p.m., police investigators arranged a pre-reconstruction of the killing.
A reliable source who was at the scene told the Post yesterday that the pre-reconstruction revealed different information than the police announced to the press on Wednesday.
"Tampubolon was stabbed by one of the suspects right after he got out of the car through the left door of his sedan. He then ran after the attacker," said the source, who refused to be identified.
He said that Tampubolon was not able to defend himself when the other suspects, who were waiting on the other side of the road, came to help their friend.
On the same day, the police also questioned a relative of one of the suspects believed to have washed the suspect's clothes and thrown away his knife.
During the press conference Wednesday, the police refused to show the clothes the suspects clothes.
City Police spokesman Lt. Col. A. Latief Rabar declined to comment on the refusal.
"Everything is clear enough," he said.
In another development, the city police squad has seized thousands of bottles of alcoholic drinks sold at unlicensed stalls in the city since the day of Tampubolon's killing.
"We all know that the killing of the general was conducted by a group of young men who had drunk alcoholic beverages," head of the on-the-alert police squad, Col. Heniyoso G., told reporters.
According to Capt. Syaiful Bd., who heads the round-the-clock operation, the drinks were of a variety of imported brand names, such as Mansion House, Double Kiwi, McDonald Whisky, and local ones, including the Anggur Cap Orang Tua, Kamput (White Goats), Anggur Merah and Anggur Putih wines.
About 70 personnel were assigned to the operation, which will be made a permanent activity of the squad.(bsr)