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)