The arrest of drug suspect Susandi “Aan” Sukatma was carried out by the book, a police investigator testified Tuesday, rebutting defense claims of a framing.
“On the night of Dec. 14, I received a call from an officer of the Maluku Police saying he and two other officers had found a crushed Ecstasy pill from a man they had interrogated in relation to embezzlement and illegal firearm possession cases,” Comr. Apollo Sinambela, from the Jakarta Police’s narcotics unit, told the South Jakarta District Court.
“The officers said they’d found the pill after asking the defendant to empty his wallet.”
Apollo claimed that after receiving the report, he had gone to the Artha Graha building in
South Jakarta where the Maluku Police officers had interrogated Aan, and took him to the Jakarta Police headquarters for further questioning.
He stressed he had seen no indication that Aan had been physically abused during the interrogation at Artha Graha.
Prosecutors have charged the defendant with possession of a controlled substance.
They allege the case began when three police officers from Maluku interrogated Aan at the Artha Graha building last December as a witness in a firearm possession case.
During the interrogation the officers noticed Aan acting “nervous” and “suspicious”, leading them to frisk him, whereupon they found a crushed Ecstasy pill in his wallet, concealed in inside a folded
Rp 50,000 banknote, prosecutors allege.
Aan insists the police wrongfully arrested and assaulted him during the interrogation.
He claims the case goes back to the illegal weapons charge against his former boss at fishery company PT Maritim Timur Jaya, David Tjiau, alleged to have stockpiled firearms illegally in Tual Island, Southeast Maluku.
He also claims the police planted the pill in his pocket to get him to testify against David.
At Tuesday’s hearing, Aan’s defense lawyers questioned the Jakarta Police’s lack of a warrant and their collusion with the Maluku Police officers, who were well outside their jurisdiction.
“Plus, the police clearly violated the defendant’s rights by putting him through a late-night questioning session without a lawyer present,” said defense attorney Daniel Pandjaitan.
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