Murder of Udin

A reporter at the Yogyakarta daily newspaper Bernas, he published a series of articles on corruption in the Bantul Regency in the months before his death.

As a young man, Udin had wanted to join the Indonesian military, but was unable due to his family's lack of political connections.

[3] In the ten years prior to his death, Udin was a freelance reporter for Bernas, a daily newspaper of Yogyakarta, Java,[5][6] owned by the Kompas Gramedia Group.

[9] Udin also reported that Sudarmo had demanded that village heads guarantee a "200 per cent" victory for Golkar (President Suharto's party) in the upcoming legislative elections.

[10] As a result of this perceived harassment, Udin had filed multiple complaints with the Legal Aid Institute (Lembaga Bantuan Hukum) in Yogyakarta.

However, other staff members convinced him to give greater coverage, and the front page of the 15 August edition showed Udin covered in bandages and gave detailed information about the case.

After his death, Udin's body was autopsied then brought to the Bernas office for a quick memorial service, in which the staff sang "Gugur Bunga" ("Fallen Flowers").

[21] Meanwhile, five members of the Indonesian Journalists' Association (Perhimpunan Wartawan Indonesia, or PWI) formed a fact-finding team on 14 August under the leadership of Putut Wiryawan and Asril Sutan.

[22] The committee eventually focused on the bribery allegations against Sudarmo, as those were the only ones exclusively covered in Bernas, as well as a case of election rigging.

[7] The police focused instead on allegations of infidelity; in late August the police stated that Udin had been murdered by a jealous husband as a result of an extramarital affair with a woman named Tri Sumaryani, a Citizens Band radio enthusiast who had once dated Udin's younger brother.

[28] Several journalistic and human rights organisations stated their belief that the murder was likely connected with Udin's reporting, including Amnesty International, which expressed its concern that allegations about the involvement of government officials had "not been properly investigated".

[5] The Committee to Protect Journalists sent a letter to President Suharto that demanded a full investigation into Udin's death, with the results made public.

[5] Sunarti, incredulous that her husband could be a murderer, wrote letters to several high-ranking officials and bodies, including President Suharto.

Eventually, police agreed to a deal with the counsel, in which Sumaji's pre-trial release was guaranteed in exchange for a promise from his lawyers to not sue for wrongful arrest.

This announcement followed a report from police chief Mulyono that Udin's blood had been disposed of in the southern sea off Parangtritis Beach as an offering to Nyai Roro Kidul, the area's deity, to ensure quick resolution of the investigation.

[35] Marsiyem's lawyers from the Legal Aid Institute (Lembaga Bantuan Hukum) filed a case in January 1997 against the police (national, provincial, and local), and Edy Wuryanto.

After both sides were unable to come to an amicable settlement, a several-month-long trial began, in which Udin's family, Bernas reporters, and the police testified.

[38] On 7 April 1997, Wuryanto was convicted of destroying evidence for taking the blood, which Marisyem's lawyers speculated was used to frame Sumaji.

[5] Only a small percentage of the damages were awarded, after the court ruled that testimony from Udin's family – whom they saw as having a conflict of interest in the outcome of the case – was ineligible.

Other witnesses for the prosecution, including several of Sumaji's neighbours, testified that the driver could not have committed the murder because he was at home on the night of 13 August.

[45] Under Indonesian law, the judges had the right to find the subject guilty despite the prosecution's withdrawal; after further consideration, on 27 November, the tribunal acquitted Sumaji.

[47] On 6 June, several weeks after President Suharto resigned, Sudarmo was ousted from his office after students conducted a sit-in at the Bantul Assembly House.

He was unable to work for three years due to the infamy he had acquired from the case, but by 2000 was driving a public bus near Mount Merapi.