Jakarta. An attorney for the convicted murderers of Vina Dewi Arsita and her boyfriend, Muhammad Rizky Rudiana alias Eki, has alleged that there were no actual murders but the cause of their deaths nearly eight years ago was instead a traffic accident.

Jogie Nainggolan, a lawyer representing five of the eight convicts who are mostly serving life imprisonment, said there were indications of a fatal crash involving the motorcycle that carried the couple in Cirebon, West Java.

However, the court agreed with arguments by prosecutors and police that Vina and Eki were brutally murdered by 11 members of a motorcycle gang, and their bodies were thrown onto an elevated road in Cirebon.

The panel of judges also determined that Vina was raped by her murderers prior to her death, before sentencing seven defendants to life imprisonment and handing an underage defendant an eight-year sentence in the juvenile prison. Three other suspects remain at large to date.

However, Jogie said a lack of forensic science during the investigation made the judgment highly questionable.

He claimed that in the wake of the investigation, he inspected the said “murder scene” and the section of the road where the bodies were found on August 28, 2016.

“We saw a visible mark left by the movement of a motorcycle against the road barrier and skid marks on the asphalt,” Jogie said in an exclusive interview with BTV network. 

“Another thing that led us to conclude into a traffic accident is that one of four bolts that fastened the nearby lamp post had body part on it based on the on-site investigation by the traffic police. That means there was a traffic accident and there was no crime,” he added.

The bodies were exhumed for an autopsy and forensic doctors found a trace of sperm inside Vina’s genitalia, leading police to assume that she had been raped.

“But there was no DNA test to confirm whose sperm is that while my clients were readily available for the test at that time,” Jogie said.

Furthermore, the West Java Police have refused to retrieve the footage from a security camera at the scene on the grounds that they had no IT experts to do the job, the lawyer complained.

“Had police followed the scientific crime investigation, everything would have become crystal clear. We wouldn’t need to debate who the murderers were or whether there was a traffic accident that caused the deaths,” Jogie said.

He claimed that his clients admitted to the murder under duress, saying all of them were physically abused by the Cirebon police before they were transferred to the West Java Police headquarters for further investigation.

Benny Mamoto, a member of the National Police Commission (Kompolnas), also criticized the police for not implementing forensic science in the case.

“Investigators relied merely on admission by the suspects while we no longer live in that era anymore,” Benny said in the same BTV interview.

“They didn’t conduct the DNA test and refused to examine the security camera.”

Weaknesses in the early phase of the investigation have caused conflicting arguments among police, prosecutors, and lawyers, said Benny, himself a retired police general.

The commission has urged the West Java Police to review all evidence and past testimonies from witnesses with support from the national criminal investigation agency (Bareskrim).

“Our advice is for the police to seriously consider opinions by the defense team in their efforts to review the case and reconstruct the investigation by acknowledging past weaknesses and mistakes,” Benny said.

He also urged police to do more to arrest the three fugitives.

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.