The family had tried to find eyewitnesses from the university but everyone had remained tight-lipped, Mr Hartono Widjaja (center) said. --ST PHOTO: WONG KWAI CHOW
THE case of Mr David Hartanto Widjaja, an Indonesian student who died at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in March, is entering a crucial stage, but the family continues to suspect an unfair process.
No analysis on the cause of David's death
NTU alleges that Mr David Widjaja had attempted to kill his professor Chan Kap Luk, just before ending his life.
Indonesian lawyer OC Kaligis, an advisor to the family, said Singapore's coroner court process turned out to analyse the possibility whether there had been a murder attempt on Professor Chan Kap Luk.
Mr David Widjaja's family filed a request in April to the Singaporean coroner court to consider the case as a murder, challengingconclusions made by the NTU and Singaporean police that he had committed suicide. If the coroner court rules that it was not suicide, the case be forwarded to the criminal court.
The Widjaja family, however, feels they received unequal treatment throughout the process.
The case has just entered the third phase of the court process, with more new witnesses to be presented by NTU and the family.
Mr Hartono Widjaja, David's father, said NTU had already presented 22 witnesses, with four more to be presented soon.
'But so far we were only given opportunities to present four witnesses, out of nine names we have submitted,' said Mr Hartono Widjaja on Wednesday over the telephone from Singapore. 'Our request that David's laptop and digital hard disk be returned to the family was also denied. And we just found out that the judge never received the family's request until today.'
Wednesday saw the coroner court receive testimonies from four witnesses - none of whom are eyewitnesses - brought forward by the Widjaja family.
The family had tried to find eyewitnesses from the university but everyone had remained tight-lipped, Mr Hartono Widjaja said.
He added that NTU President Su Guan Ning had told the family that the university had a witness who saw Mr David Widjaja attempt to slit his wrist before he jumped from a building in the university.
'But when we asked to meet the person? The NTU rejected us.' -- JAKARTA POST / ANN
