Bandung. A judge in the Bandung District Court on Monday ordered the immediate release of Pegi Setiawan after declaring that police had violated procedures in naming him a suspect in the 2016 murder of a couple in Cirebon, West Java.

Pegi is the ninth and last suspect in the murder case with police accusing him of becoming the mastermind behind the murders of Vina Dewi Arsita and her boyfriend, Muhammad Rizky Rudiana.

The sole judge accepted the legal motion by Pegi and ruled that police had violated the criminal procedures code by designating him a murder suspect before first investigating his alleged role or interrogating him in person.

Judge Eman Sulaeman argued that in previous court hearings against eight other suspects, there was no mention of a police investigation against Pegi.

"I pronounce that the petitioner’s designation as a premeditated murder suspect is unlawful and without merit,” the judge said.

The judge also ordered the West Java Police to release Pegi, cease the murder probe against him, and restore his reputation.

Police said Vina and her boyfriend were murdered by 11 members of a motorcycle gang and that Vina was raped before her death on August 27, 2016, in the West Java town of Cirebon. Their bodies were found on an elevated road in the town the following day.

The murder case resurfaced after all eight convicts recently claimed they made confessions under duress, citing torture by officers at the Cirebon Metropolitan Police during the investigation. They also claimed that they didn’t know the victims, Pegi, or the two fugitives, retracting their previous police depositions.

Their attorney suspected that Vina and Rizky could have died from a fatal motorcycle accident based on the initial investigation by the traffic police at the scene.

Lawyer Jogie Nainggolan said police had ignored forensic evidence by refusing to examine footage from a security camera at the scene and refraining from conducting DNA tests on his clients to verify the rape claim.

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