TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The lawyer team of two students killed in a rally outside the Southeast Sulawesi Provincial Legislative Assembly (DPRD) building on Sept. 26 have appealed to President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) to set up an independent fact-finding team to probe the case.

The investigation of the shooting case has entered the third week and only six police officers have been interrogated for allegedly violating the code of ethics by carrying firearms during the rally, chief of the lawyer team Sukdar said on Saturday.

He further criticized the slow process of investigating the case to find the police officers who are strongly believed to have shot the students.

The independent fact-finding team is needed to probe the involvement of the six police officers who have allegedly violated the standard operating procedure (SOP) leading to the death of two students identified as Randi and Muhammad Yusuf Kardawi, he said.

The lawyer team also urged the investigating team of the Indonesian Police Headquarters to immediately give a clear picture of whether the six police officers have strong connection with the shooting of the two students.

"We, the lawyer team, asked about the commitment of the Indonesian Police to settle the case. It seems that the National Police's Profession and Security Division focused on investigating violation of the code of ethics by the six police officers," he said.

The police have suspended the six personnel while its investigating team is probing them for alleged violation of standard operating procedure (SOP) resulting in the death of two demonstrating students in the Southeast Sulawesi provincial capital of Kendari recently.

"The six personnel are declared to have violated the standard operating procedure (SOP), as they carried firearms while securing a student demonstration outside the Southeast Sulawesi Provincial Legislative Assembly (DPRD) Building on September 26, 2019," Chief of the Public Relations Division of the Southeast Sulawesi Provincial Police Adjunct Senior Commissioner Harry Goldenhart stated in Kendari recently.

The six suspended personnel are identified by their initials as DK, DM, MI, MA, H, and E. DK is a lower-ranking commissioned officer holding a detective post at the Kendari City Police, while the rest are senior non-commissioned officers from the detective and intelligence unit.

Thousands of students from different institutes of higher learning in Kendari had rallied to protest several controversial bills on Sept. 26, resulting in the deaths of two students. Randi died of a gunshot wound, while Kardawi failed to survive after receiving intensive care following his surgery at the Bahtermas Hospital.

ANTARA