APSN | Investigation into activist shooting continues

Home > South-East Asia >> Indonesia

Investigation into activist shooting continues

Jakarta Post - January 22, 2015

KPK: Activist shot in East Java is one of our sources – Jakarta Globe. January 21, 2015
Probe urged into shooting of activist – Jakarta Post. January 21, 2015
Attacks against journos on the rise – Jakarta Post. December 29, 2014
Violence against journalists condemned – Jakarta Post. November 15, 2014
End violence against journalists: Activists – Jakarta Post. August 18, 2014

Indra Harsaputra, Surabaya – The police continue their investigation into Tuesday's nonfatal shooting of anticorruption activist Mathur Husaini, 47, of Bangkalan regency, Madura Island, East Java.

East Java Police's spokesperson Sr. Comr. Awi Setiyono said that East Java Police chief Insp. Gen. Anas Yusuf had given serious attention to the case.

"A special team, the Cobra team from the Jatanras unit, has been deployed to pursue the perpetrator," Awi said, Wednesday. He added that East Java Water Police director Sr. Comr. Agus Duta had been appointed to lead the investigation.

Awi said that the examination of the projectile removed from the victim revealed it had a calibre of 9-millimeters, was copper plated and had no groove. Yet, he said, the police had yet to know the type of the gun used by the shooter.

He added that the police were currently intensively interrogating five witnesses, two of whom were family members of the victim and three of whom were the victim's colleagues.

"Of the five, one did witness the shooting," said Awi. He said that the interrogations had been underway since Tuesday, but one witness was frightened for his or her life.

As reported previously, Mathur was shot by an unidentified person in front of his house on Jl. Teuku Umar on Tuesday at about 2 a.m.

The head of the Dr. Soetomo Hospital's emergency ward, Urip Murtedjo, said on Wednesday that Mathur's condition was getting better after the projectile was removed from his body through surgery.

Fellow activists have linked the shooting with the investigation of a corruption case allegedly involving Bangkalan legislative council speaker Fuad Amin, who is also a former Bangkalan regent, by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK). Fuad is currently in KPK detention.

Meanwhile, dozens of people claiming to be grouped under an alliance of students and non-governmental organizations in Bangkalan staged a rally in front of the local police headquarters to show solidarity over Mathur's shooting.

Carrying posters and conducting speeches, they demanded the police to quickly apprehend the shooter. "We ask the police to move soon to arrest the perpetrator," protest coordinator Badrus Syamsi said on the sidelines of the rally.

Meanwhile, Commissioner Natalius Pigai of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) said the commission urged the police to thoroughly investigate the case because it was not an ordinary crime.

"When no theft or robbery element is found in an incident, it indicates that this is not an ordinary crime," Natalius said.

Natalius said that an open, transparent and accountable investigation into the incident was very important because the incident threatened democracy and press freedom in Indonesia.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/01/22/investigation-activist-shooting-continues.html.