Jakarta. The family of a convict in the 2016 murder of Vina Dewi Arsita and her boyfriend, Muhammad Rizky Rudiana, also known as Eki, has expressed concerns that he may have been wrongly indicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Sudirman is one of eight convicts found guilty of murdering the couple in Cirebon, West Java, on August 27, 2016. Their bodies were discovered on an elevated road the following day.

According to court documents, Vina was gang-raped by members of a motorcycle gang before she and her boyfriend were brutally murdered. Police have identified 11 suspects in the case, but three remain at large.

Sudirman, who is serving a life sentence, was neither part of the motorcycle gang nor involved in the murder, his brother claimed in a recent interview with BTV network.

"My younger brother is serving life imprisonment for a crime he didn’t commit. He didn’t know the three fugitives, nor did he know Vina and Eki,” said the brother, who introduced himself only as Beni.

"He is a school dropout and always stayed at home. He didn’t have a motorcycle," Beni said of Sudirman.

According to Beni, Sudirman was arrested by police without a warrant while he was gathering with friends near his home.

Sudirman was forced to admit to the murder under duress and could not withstand the torture, Beni said.

The trial was conducted behind closed doors due to the graphic nature of the case and the fact that one of the defendants was underage.

"No one was allowed to attend the hearings," Beni said.

The eight convicts are neighbors and know each other, but they do not know the three fugitives, he added.

Beni’s statement marks the second claim of a miscarriage of justice in the murder case.

Saka Tatal, one of the eight convicts, recently said that he had been wrongly convicted. He was only 15 when police arrested him and forced him to admit involvement in the murder.

Saka was later sentenced to eight years in prison, while the remaining seven -- Sudirman, Jaya, Supriyanto, Eka Sandi, Hadi Saputra, Eko Ramadhani, and Rivaldi Aditya Wardana -- received life imprisonment. Saka was released in 2020 for good behavior during his prison time.

“On the night of the murder, I was at home with my siblings, my uncle, and my friends. I wasn’t at the murder scene and I didn’t know the victims,” Saka, now 23, told BTV on Friday.

“Before the arrest, my uncle asked me to refuel his motorcycle. As I brought the motorcycle home from refueling, I saw police officers and when I approached them, I was immediately arrested without any explanation,” Saka said.

“They took me to the [Cirebon] Metropolitan Police, where I was punched and forced to admit to a crime I didn’t commit.”

The three fugitives are from Banjarwangun village in the Mundu district of Cirebon regency. They are identified by their nicknames: Andi, 30; Dani, 28; and Pegi, 31.

Recently, all eight convicts retracted their police statements in which they said they knew the three fugitives personally.

Jogie Nainggolan, an attorney for five of the convicts, suspected serious misconduct from the start of the police investigation.

In a recent news conference, Jogie said his clients were tortured by police, most likely by the father of the male victim. The father is an officer with the Cirebon police.

“There was mistreatment by investigators at the Cirebon Metropolitan Police against my clients, most likely by the victim’s father, Rudiana, who arrested them without any evidence or warrants,” Jogie said.

The lawyer questioned Rudiana’s involvement in the arrests because he was stationed at the anti-narcotics unit, which had nothing to do with homicide.

In an Instagram video, 1st Inspector Rudiana called on the public to refrain from speculating wildly about the murder case.

“Please don’t hurt us any further. Eki, our son, was the victim of a violent gang, and I cannot sit and do nothing about it,” he said. “We will continue our efforts to arrest the three fugitives.”

For Marliyana, Vina’s elder sister, these unexpected developments have only reopened wounds from nearly eight years ago without providing any consolation.

She criticized the police for their inability to arrest the three suspects in a small town after so many years.

“Eight years have passed, and that isn’t a short time. What makes it so difficult to get information about their whereabouts?” Marliyana asked.

She said she had met the convicts and asked them about the fugitives, but they remained silent.

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