Pacific Scoop:
Slightly abridged in translation by TAOL.
JUBI: According to a police statement, the autopsy of the body of West Papua journalist Ardiansyah Matra’is has revealed that he was struck several blows before falling into the water and drowning in Maro River, Merauke.
Police public relations officer Untung Yoga told journalists that several of his teeth were missing and there were swellings in several parts of his body, all of which were likely to have been the result of his having been struck with a blunt implement.
However, the police official said, before concluding the the victim had been murdered, a further investigation would take place at the forensic laboratory in Makassar.
The autopsy results confirm what members of his family said, namely that there were unexplained things about his body when it was lifted out of the river, in particular marks around his neck indicating that he had been tortured and swellings in several parts of the body.
Investigations by the journalists organisation, AJI, conclude that he left home at around 13.00 on the day he was reported missing. He apparently met someone and may have spent about three hours with that person but he never returned home afterwards.
His car was found near the location of the incident with no signs of having been damaged at around 16.00. But several truck drivers who went back and forth across the bridge (over the river) say they saw the vehicle at 16.00, which was later removed at around 18.00 but was brought back to the original place where it was found
A spokesman for the Alliance of Journalists AJI, Victor Mambor, said that the police should immediately investigate who it was who murdered Ardiansyah, adding: ‘It is highly likely that his murder is connected with the terror situation for journalists which was occurring at the time of Ardiansyah’s death, aimed at creating a tense situation in Merauke.”
According to AJI, a week before Ardiansyah went missing, a person who was not known to his family visited him several times and spoke with him.