Gunawan Santosa has been unable to counter the evidence pointing to his involvement in the murders of PT Asaba boss, Boedyharto Angsono (Santosa’s former father-in-law) and Angsono’s bodyguard, Edy Siyep. Furthermore, he has also been accused of ordering the shooting of PT Asaba’s director of finance, Paulus Tedjakusuma. Police have been holding Santosa at the Metro Jaya Police Headquarters for the past two weeks and now claim to have an understanding of the chain of events leading up to the murders. They are continuing their investigations  in order to cross-check his testimony against accounts given by other witnesses. Police claim that Santosa underwent plastic surgery on his face in order to disguise his identity just five days after escaping from Kuningan Prison in West Java in mid-January 2003.

Weighing heavily against Santosa are the testimonies of four marines—Corporal 2nd Class Suud Rusli, Lieutenant 2nd Class Sam Achmad Sanusi, Corporal 2nd Class Fidel Husni and Private Santoso Subianto. The four have confessed to carrying out the hits against both Angsono and Tedjakusuma. The marines remain in the custody of the Indonesian Navy military police after turning themselves in following Angsono’s murder. They claim that Santosa ordered them to carry out the killing. However, Santosa’s testimony conflicts directly with the testimonies given by the four marines.

Santosa’s attorney, Farhat Abbas, has stated that after escaping from prison, Santosa visited Corporal 2nd Class Suud Rusli at his house in Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta. Police have not yet determined whether Santosa planned the murder from this house together with Suud Rusli. 

However, police have established the steps Santosa took to avoid capture after escaping from prison. The first step was altering his appearance through plastic surgery. Santsosa had his eyebrows altered at Elize’s salon in Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta. One of the employees of this salon has confessed to working on Santosa’s eyebrows. Santosa also had his nose and eyelids altered at Dr. Dewo Aksoro’s clinic on Jl. Cendana, Central Jakarta. “It cost Rp28 million,” said Farhat Abbas. Santosa then had a mole on his thigh removed in Mangga Dua.

Metro Jaya Police director of criminal investigations, Chief Commissioner Salempang, confirmed that Santosa underwent plastic surgery at Dr. Aksoro’s clinic. Salempang claims that Dr. Aksoro has admitted to performing surgery on Santosa’s face. However, police have not charged Aksoro with aiding and abetting Santosa during his status as a fugitive. “He has only been declared a witness because he didn’t realize that Santosa was a fugitive,” said Salempang.

Santosa also procured three separate identity cards, each listing different names and addresses. Santosa disguised himself as Indra Amapta, Kevin Martin and Dusti Bakrie during his status as a fugitive.

A friend of Boedyharto Angsono’s family claims that Santosa and his cohorts planned the murder of Angosono and Paulus Tedjakusuma during a meeting held at a seafood restaurant in Lokasari, West Jakarta. According to this source, Santosa gave Suud Rusli a Makarov firearm with which to shoot Tedjakusuma and Angsono. The police say that Makarovs are customarily used by Indonesian Navy marines.

In his police statement, Suud Rusli claimed that Santosa had paid him Rp4 million to carry out the hits against Angsono and Kusuma. Rusli stated that this money was divided between the four marines.

The hit on Paulus Tedjakusuma took place on June 6, 2003. Suud Rusli shot Tedjakusuma as he was stuck in a traffic jam in front of the Golden Truly Hotel on Jl. Angkasa Raya, Central Jakarta. Tedjakusuma survived the shooting although he was seriously wounded. Following preliminary investigations, police concluded that the weapon used to shoot Tedjakusuma was one customarily used by Indonesian Military officers. But police did not manage to narrow down this category to Indonesian Navy marines. Police now know that that the weapon used to shoot Kusuma was a Makarov, commonly used by the navy and marines.

The next target was Boedyharto Angsono. On July 19, Suud Rusli, Achmad Sanusi, Fidel Husni and Santoso Subiatno rode two motorcycles to the Pluit sports complex in North Jakarta. They had already monitored Angsono’s daily routine and knew that he would be playing basketball at the sports complex. Upon reaching the complex, Suud Rusli shot Angsono and his bodyguard, Edy Siyep, 33. Preliminary police investigations again concluded that the weapon used in the shootings was an Indonesian military firearm.

This time, police took immediate steps to notify the navy. Following internal investigations, military police arrested the four suspects for alleged involvement in the shootings. Through their testimonies, the four implicated Gunawan Santosa as the mastermind behind the hits.

Santosa has denied all involvement in planning the murder of either Paulus Tedjakusuma or Boedyharto Angsono. Farhat Abbas quoted Santosa as having said “I don’t know. If it was a matter of revenge, I would kill A. Liong,” during police questioning. Police have identified A. Liong as the nephew of Angsono.

A. Liong helped Angsono develop contacts with police and also reported Santosa to police for possessing rare and protected animals at his holiday house in Cidahu, Sukabumi. Thanks to this information, Santosa was eventually sentenced to two and a half years in prison. A. Liong also warned Angsono and his son, Stephen, to stay on guard after Paulus Kusuma’s shooting. “He can’t kill me,” A. Liong reportedly said about Santosa.

According to Farhat Abbas, Santosa has denied giving direct orders to Suud Rusli to murder Angsono. Abbas claims that Santosa only asked Suud Rusli for help in settling his problems with Angsono but never ordered Rusli to murder him. “That was a misunderstanding on Suud Rusli’s part,” said Abbas, quoting Santosa.

Police are now attempting to verify Santosa’s statements against confessions given by the four marines to Indonesian Navy military police. This involves cross-checking Santosa’s testimony against Suud Rusli’s account of the events. So far, the two testimonies appear to conflict.

Both state police and military police have investigated the files on Santosa and the four marine suspects. When asked to comment on Santosa’s rejection of the allegations against him, Salempang said: “He may deny these allegations, but the truth will be established in court.”

Currently there are only five suspects in the case. Earlier reports had emerged that members of Santosa’s family (namely Santosa’s mother, Mulyati Santosa, his elder sister, Sulistina Santosa, and his cousin, Andre Basuki), would also be declared suspects for assisting Santosa during his status as a fugitive. However, these names have all been dropped from the suspect list. Alamsyah Hanafiah, attorney for Santosa’s family, said that Suud Rusli often borrowed Andre Basuki’s motorcycle. It was this motorcycle that was used in the murder of Angsono. However, this evidence was not enough to establish Andre Basuki as a suspect. Furthermore, “[Santosa’s] mother cannot be tried for concealing Santosa,” said Hanafiah.

Nevertheless, it is possible that there are other suspects, yet to be named, who helped Santosa escape from prison. Hanafiah also noted that Santosa had used eight different telephone numbers during the three days prior to his arrest. These numbers have been traced to a navy marine officer living in Sukabumi, West Jakarta, a clerk at the Supreme Court and two housewives.

According to TEMPO’s source at police HQ, this navy marine officer sent an SMS message to Santosa warning him that he was being followed by police detectives driving a Suzuki Escudo. It is suspected that thanks to this tip-off Santosa managed to evade police and escape from his boarding house located on Jl. Kartini, Jakarta. Indonesian Navy military police commander, Brigadier General Soenarko, also admitted to having heard that navy officers were involved in helping Santosa during his time as a fugitive. “However, to this day I haven’t managed to identify them,” said Soenarko.

The Indonesian Navy is reportedly incensed at the allegations involving its officers. However, they are even more furious at Santosa for dragging marine officers into his operation. “I have requested that people like him be heavily punished. I suggest that he either be hanged or shot”, said Indonesian Military Navy Chief of Staff, Admiral Bernard Kent Sondakh to TEMPO’s Yura Syahrul. In the meantime, the clamps continue to tighten on Santosa.

Agus Riyanto