Slain Drug Kingpin Keeps Mouth Shut to Lawyers Over Officers' Involvement in Drug Trafficking
Jakarta. Freddy Budiman, the recently executed drug kingpin whose explosive testimony on the alleged involvement of security officials in his drug trafficking ring was released only hours before he faced a firing squad, apparently never made the confession to his lawyers, a member of a police-initiated independent investigative team said on Tuesday (30/08).
The team had met with two of Freddy's three lawyers to ask questions about his allegations that members of the National Police, National Anti-Narcotics Agency (BNN) and Indonesian Military (TNI) had helped him run his drug business for years.
The lawyers reportedly said they only had "normal" conversations with their client, mostly about his defense strategy, team member Hendardi said.
"As far as we know, Freddy never mentioned explicitly or implicitly to the lawyers the names of the security officers allegedly involved in drug trafficking or how exactly they were paid for their alleged indiscretions," Hendardi told the Jakarta Globe.
Freddy had allegedly given more than Rp 450 billion to officers from the anti-narcotics agency and Rp 90 billion to police officers as kickback payment for ensuring safe delivery of his drugs.
The drug kingpin made his scandalous confession to human rights activist Haris Azhar when they met on the prison island of Nusakambangan two years ago. Haris released Freddy's testimony late last month shortly before he faced the firing squad.
According to Haris, Freddy told him the allegations had been included in his defense pleas, which his lawyers drafted three years ago.
The investigative team said they had obtained a copy of Freddy's defense pleas from the West Jakarta District Court. "There was no mention whatsoever of the allegations in the defense pleas we examined," Hendardi, who is also the head of Jakarta-based human rights group Setara Institute, said.
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