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Police name 'Bharada E' as suspect in Brig. Yosua's death
After weeks of claiming that "Bharada E" had acted in self-defense in the alleged fatal shootout that led to the death of Brig. Nofriansyah Yosua Hutabarat, the National Police have announced that Richard Eliezer has been named as a suspect in the case.
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The logo of the National Police’s Criminal Investigation Department (Bareskrim) adorns the frontispiece of its Jakarta headquarters. (National Police/File)
T
he National Police’s Criminal Investigation Department (Bareskrim) has named Second Agent (Bharada) Richard Eliezer as a suspect in the fatal shooting of Brig. Nofriansyah Yosua Hutabarat at the official residence of then-internal affairs chief Insp. Gen. Ferdy Sambo in South Jakarta last month.
Police have continued to refer to Richard by a single initial, though the National Police Commission released the officer’s name around two weeks after the case broke.
“We have named Bharada E as a suspect,” Bareskrim general crimes director Brig. Gen. Andi Rian Djajadi told a press conference on Wednesday evening, adding that “E” had been detained on suspicion of murder and being an accomplice to a crime.
Murder carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.
Yosua, more frequently referred to by police as Brig. J, was killed in an alleged shootout with Richard at Ferdy’s residence in Duren Tiga, South Jakarta, at around 5 p.m. on July 8. The two officers had been on duty at the residence as Ferdy’s aides de camp, although initial reports cited police as identifying Richard as a chauffeur to Ferdy’s wife.
Hours before the fatal incident, the pair had been accompanying Ferdy’s family back to Jakarta from a trip to Magelang, Central Java.
Early accounts of the incident from the National Police stated that Richard had acted in self-defense. They claimed that the shootout had occurred as a result of Yosua allegedly harassing Ferdy’s wife, and that Yosua had drawn his weapon and fired at Richard first.
The successive discovery of discrepancies between information provided by Yosua’s family and the police's official account has raised suspicions of a cover-up among the public.
Some of the points at issue include the police’s claim that the CCTV surveillance cameras at the residence were broken or not operating at the time of the incident, an unclear account of Ferdy’s whereabouts when the alleged shooting occurred and the various injuries Yosua’s family said they had found on his body but were not described in police reports.
This prompted even the President to call for “due process” in investigating the incident, while the National Commission for Human Rights (Komnas HAM) has launched an independent probe into the incident.
Following public calls for transparency, the National Police suspended Ferdy, Internal Security Bureau chief Brig. Gen. Hendra Kurniawan and South Jakarta Police chief Sr. Comr. Budhi Herdi Susianto. (dre)
