apuan student Obby Kogoya, 21, filed on Monday a pretrial motion challenging the Yogyakarta Police’s decision to name him a suspect.
Obby registered the pretrial motion at the Sleman District Court through his lawyers from the Yogyakarta Legal Aid Foundation (LBH).
“The pretrial hearing motion is filed by LBH Yogyakarta as a way of showing up the investigators’ oppressive acts in naming Obby a suspect,” said Emanuel “Edo” Gobay of LBH Yogyakarta told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
Obby is one of the Papuan students arrested by the police as they made their way to the Kamasan Papuan student boarding house on Jl. Kusumanegara in Yogyakarta, on Friday. The students were staging a peaceful rally in support of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua’s (ULMWP) full membership in the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) when a group of police suddenly approached to disperse them.
Obby attempted to escape but the police arrested him. The student was allegedly beaten before he was handcuffed.
Obby was later taken to the Yogyakarta Police office where he was named a suspect for allegedly violating Articles 212, 213 and 351 of the Criminal Code (KUHP) on using violence against state officials. He has since been required to report to the police twice a week.
“From photos circulating that we’ve seen, it was Obby who suffered the violence,” said Edo.
He further said Obby was named a suspect without adequate preliminary evidence. Prosecutors had not been able to show any valid evidence or which witnesses they had questioned, he went on.
National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) member Natalius Pigai said earlier there were potential human rights violations involved in Obby’s arrest. (ebf)
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