Army Chief Of Staff Maruli Affirms Not Protecting Members If Involved In The Murder Of Journalist Rico Sampurna

Army Chief Of Staff General Maruli Simanjuntak (DOK ANTARA)

Army Chief of Staff General Maruli Simanjuntak emphasized that he would not provide protection if any members of the Indonesian Army were involved in the burning of the Tribrata TV journalist's house, Rico Sampurna Pasaribu, in Karo Regency, North Sumatra, which resulted in the death of four people. Maruli said his institution would only suffer losses if it protected unscrupulous members involved in the case because it was a crime. "Why protect rich perpetrators, in fact, if someone does something wrong, we just give it, why bother," said Maruli after leading the ceremony to receive career officers at the Indonesian Army Headquarters, Jakarta, Antara, Monday, July 22. So far, he has confirmed that the TNI AD has followed up on reports of alleged involvement of soldiers in the case by deploying a team. However, at the beginning, there was no evidence that led to the involvement of soldiers. In addition, according to him, the victim some time ago made a lot of news, one of which targeted the Indonesian Army. The case of the victim's death is suspected to be related to online gambling reports made by the victim some time before he died. For this reason, he invited the court process to later reveal clarity regarding the alleged involvement of the individual members of the soldier in question. "Until now I know that, that there is communication (the TNI soldiers) with the victim. Now this is what is being pursued, even though there may be a lot of communication," he said. Previously, the Rico Perfect family had reported a member of the Indonesian Army, namely Koptu HB from the Simbisa Infantry Battalion 125 Kabanjahe to the Indonesian Army Military Police Center (Puspomad) in Gambir, Central Jakarta, Friday (12/7). HB was reported to Puspomad for allegedly being one of the masterminds of Rico's murder with his family. According to the attorney for the Rico family, Irfan Saputra, HB was several times reported by Rico for allegedly being involved in gambling activities within the TNI. So far, the North Sumatra Police have named three suspects in the burning of the Rico Perfect Pasaribu house, which caused the victim to die. They are RAS, YT, and B.

The Head of Public Relations of the North Sumatra Police, Kombes Police Hadi Wahyudi, said that suspect B was the person who ordered the other two perpetrators to burn the victim's house.