Yudi Susanto not out of the woods yet
Yudi Susanto not out of the woods yet
JAKARTA (JP): Businessman Yudi Susanto, who was acquitted of
the murder of labor activist Marsinah, is not completely out of
the woods yet, with the discovery in his house of blood traces
identified as belonging to the victim.
East Java Police Chief Maj. Gen. Roesmanhadi was quoted by
Antara as saying yesterday that the finding supports the early
theory that Marsinah was locked up in Yudi's house prior to her
death.
Roesmanhadi was announcing the result of the first phase of
the new investigation his office has launched following the
Supreme Court's decision to exonerate Yudi and eight other people
convicted in the May 1993 murder trial.
He said the blood sample, taken from a folding chair found in
Yudi's house in Surabaya, was tested at the police laboratory. It
matched with the blood of Marsinah, he added.
The announcement came as legal experts argued that by law Yudi
could not be tried for the same offense of which he had been
acquitted. The owner of PT Catur Putra Surya, the watchmaking
company in Sidoarjo where Marsinah worked, was found guilty by
the lower court of masterminding the murder. The Supreme Court
exonerated him, and the other eight defendants, for lack of
evidence.
Since the murder case was reopened last month, police have
questioned four Sidoarjo military officers who were involved in
the industrial dispute that Yudi was having with his employees.
So far the investigation has failed to find any evidence
connecting the officers with the murder.
The officers did, however, acknowledge that they intervened
in the labor dispute on behalf of Yudi and played a role in
firing some of the employees.
Marsinah's mutilated body was found in a forest on May 9,
1993, several days after she led a labor strike at the factory.
On May 5, she went up to the Sidoarjo military headquarters to
protest against the dismissal of 13 fellow workers. Later in the
afternoon, she told her roommate that she was going out to buy
food. She never returned and her body was found four days later
in Nganjuk, about 200 kilometers from Sidoarjo. (rms)