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EIGHT ACQUITTED IN MURDER OF WOMAN LABOR LEADER, NEW INQUIRY URGED

Updated: May 16, 1995 05:00 PM GMT
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In a ruling announced on May Day, the Indonesia Supreme Court acquitted and ordered the release of eight people convicted of the 1993 murder of Marsinah, a female labor activist in Surabaya, East Java.

New evidence showed the eight were not guilty of murder, according to Supreme Court director of criminal affairs Sujati Soedarmoko.

The Supreme Court office in Jakarta faxed instructions May 4 to the Surabaya magistrate court and local penitentiaries ordering immediate release of the eight former executives and employees of watch manufacturer Catur Putra Surya.

Before her murder in May 1993, Marsinah, an employee, led a strike in the watch factory in Surabaya, a special industrial development zone in East Java province, about 670 kilometers east of Jakarta.

Seven of those convicted in the case were serving 12 or 13 year prison terms, one a four-year term. A female executive was serving nine months.

Last November, the East Java High Court acquitted Catur Putra Surya director Yudi Susanto, who had been convicted of masterminding the murder.

An army captain, tried by a military tribunal and found guilty of knowing of the murder plot but failing to report it to his superior, was not acquitted.

The armed forces information service announced May 5 that the captain, who is completing his nine-month jail sentence, would be rehabilitated.

The acquittals came after a long, difficult legal battle fought by defense lawyers and intervention from the official national human rights commission.

Defense lawyers from Surabaya´s Legal Aid Institute disclosed to the court that their clients were illegally abducted by security officers last year.

Detained for 19 days in military custody, the defendants were tortured to extract confessions saying they were involved in the plot to kill Marsinah, declared a martyr and heroine of workers by labor activists nationwide.

From Surabaya, the national news agency Antara reported that the released prisoners were greeted by family members and lawyers. Before going home, the former convicts bathed at a hotel and celebrated their release.

Jakarta´s Yayasan Lembaga Bantuan Hukum Indonesia (YLBHI, Indonesia legal aid institute) called the acquittal a "brave decision" that "satisfies people´s thirst for justice amid the confidence crisis regarding judicial institutions in this country."

YLBHI officials also urged police to reopen the investigation into Marsinah´s murder to find the real culprits.

They suggested that investigators connect the case to government labor control policies that they say justify repression to settle labor conflicts.

Meanwhile, Edward Sahetapy, a law professor at Surabaya´s Airlangga University, urged authorities to use military police in the new investigation.

According to Sahetapy, military police would be in a better position than local police to interrogate military officers involved in abducting and torturing the former convictees to produce false confessions.

END

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