The Widjaja family tells their side of the story
Friday, 26 June 2009,
Xue Jianyue / Reporter
Family insists that David Widjaja could not have committed suicide, as he appeared “talkative” and cheerful”. This contrasts with evidence found on his laptop, which portrayed him as suicidal.
24, 25 JULY 2009 — THE family of David Hartanto Widjaja put up a spirited defence against allegations of his suicide and attempted murder during the last two days of the coroner inquiry.
The Widjaja family also made a surprise attempt to change their lawyer on the last day, causing a delay in the proceedings that resumed only at 11am.
In addition, they expressed deep unhappiness with NTU’s alleged statements about David shortly after his death.
David Widjaja, a final-year student from the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EEE), is alleged to have stabbed a professor before he plunged four storeys to his death on 2 March.
David ‘close’ to family
The family, represented by David’s brother William Widjaja as witness, said that the deceased had been very close to his family.
William, 24, said that his brother had communicated via MSN daily with him, called his parents regularly, and even forwarded NTU email to William.
In fact, when he personally called his mother to tell her about the scholarship termination, she said: “it is okay, it is already the last semester.” She also said that the family would have no problems paying for the fees.
The Widjaja family also knew that David attended a church and felt that it was “okay, as long it is good for him”.
They were also aware that he liked playing computer games, and advised him from time to time to reduce his playing duration.
When David visited his family during Chinese New Year this year, he appeared talkative and cheerful. When asked about his Final Year Project (FYP), he said that it was about ‘image processing’ and “he will finish it soon”.
According to his family, David never discussed suicide or murder, and it was highly unlikely he would think of these as he is “not one to pick a fight’.
Unhappiness with NTU
The Widjaja family also expressed unhappiness that NTU made claims that their son “committed suicide, stabbed his professor and slit his wrists” so soon after his death on 2 March.
“How can NTU make such a statement even before the police had completed their investigations?” a visibly upset William Widjaja said at a press conference on Wednesday afternoon.
When the family was shown around the crime scene on the night of David’s death, they were surprised that the area has been cleaned up. The police tape was also absent, according to William.
He also said the family were not informed by NTU or the police about the extent of David’s injuries until they found out about it themselves when they were preparing to fly back to Jakarta.
William also alleged that NTU had “pressurised” the family to bring the body back to Indonesia or cremate it in Singapore.
In response, NTU released a statement on Wednesday saying that their officers who handled this tragedy “appreciate the grief and anger the family feels” and “sought to act with sympathy and respectfulness of their understandable pain.”
The university said that they had had given every assistance and support to the family during their time of need, arranging for accommodation, as well as in funeral and administrative matters.
The attempt to change lawyers
The Widjaja family submitted a letter directly to State Coroner Victor Yeo requesting, for a second time, to suspend the proceedings, listiing the names seven more witnesses.
They also requested that their Singapore lawyer Mr Shashi Nathan be replaced by criminal lawyer Subhas Anandan.
However, Mr Anandan said he would not be able to take on the case unless proceedings were further adjourned to allow him sufficient time to prepare for it.
The State Coroner rejected the family’s application, explaining that this was already the last day of the second tranche and that “in the interest of justice” it would be better for William Widjaja to finish giving his evidence.
In the end, the Widjaja family opted to continue with Mr Nathan, who said that he can “put aside his disappointment” and help the family and court complete the proceedings.
End of proceedings
Towards the end of the proceedings, Station Inspector Soh Chee Eng presented his investigative report, which contains accounts given to the police from 94 individuals.
The report also took into account the suicide note found in David’s laptop, his bag, scholarship termination letter, and also academic results.
As the lead investigator, the SI Soh also reaffirmed the accuracy of photographs taken at the scenes involved in the cases.
The Widjaja family also took the initiative to apologise to Mr Nathan after the inquiry ended.
Mr Nathan told the media that the changing of lawyers was not the family’s idea, but that they were badly advised by their Indonesian lawyer.
He also said that it was because of his empathy for the family’s feelings and his duty to the court that he agreed to continue acting for the Widjaja family till the verdict is out.
The coroner will announce his verdict on 29 July.
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Friday, June 26, 2009
David family feels unfairly treated by Singapore court
David family feels unfairly treated by Singapore court
The Jakarta Post , JAKARTA | Thu, 06/25/2009 11:03 AM | National
The case of David Hartanto Wijaya, 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.
David’s family filed a request in April to the Singaporean coroner court to consider the case as a murder, challenging conclusions made by the NTU and Singaporean police that David had committed suicide.
Only if the coroner court finds it was not suicide will the case be forwarded to the criminal court.
However, David’s family has felt that they still 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 the NTU and the family.
Hartono Wijaya, David’s father, said the 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,” Hartono said on 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,” he said Wednesday after one of the court’s sessions.
Wednesday saw the coroner court receive testimonies from four witnesses brought forward by David’s family.
“One of them is his brother, the other three are his friends. But they are not eyewitnesses. They were all witnesses to David’s life as a brother, as a friend,” Hartono said.
The family had tried to find eyewitnesses from the university but everyone had remained tight-lipped, he said.
Hartono said the President of NTU Su Guan Ning had told the family that the university had a witness who saw David 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.”
The NTU alleged David had attempted to kill Chan Kap Luk, David’s professor, just before David committed suicide.
Indonesian lawyer O. C. Kaligis, an advisor to the family, said the Singapore’s coroner court process turned out to analyze the possibility whether there had been a murder attempt on Professor Chan Kap Luk.
“What we see is that the court only focused on how David Hartanto Wijaya tried to murder the professor,” Kaligis said.
“From the start there has never been an analysis on the cause of David’s death.”
The pictures that show his deep wounds were never exhibited, said the lawyer who advocated the family pro bono.
Horrendously graphic pictures of David’s corpse showed he did not commit suicide. The pictures had been analyzed by Indonesian forensic experts Djaja Surya Atmadja and Evi Untoro, and they said any forensic doctor around the world would see from the forensic report that David’s body had defense wounds.
“It was absolutely not a suicide.”
Iwan Piliang, a blogger who has been accompanying the family since the beginning, said that they would bring forward two forensic experts from Indonesia who had analyzed David’s body from the Singaporean doctors’ forensic report and pictures of his body, “including a digital forensic expert who is the one and only expert in Indonesia.” (bbs/iwp)
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The Jakarta Post , JAKARTA | Thu, 06/25/2009 11:03 AM | National
The case of David Hartanto Wijaya, 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.
David’s family filed a request in April to the Singaporean coroner court to consider the case as a murder, challenging conclusions made by the NTU and Singaporean police that David had committed suicide.
Only if the coroner court finds it was not suicide will the case be forwarded to the criminal court.
However, David’s family has felt that they still 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 the NTU and the family.
Hartono Wijaya, David’s father, said the 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,” Hartono said on 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,” he said Wednesday after one of the court’s sessions.
Wednesday saw the coroner court receive testimonies from four witnesses brought forward by David’s family.
“One of them is his brother, the other three are his friends. But they are not eyewitnesses. They were all witnesses to David’s life as a brother, as a friend,” Hartono said.
The family had tried to find eyewitnesses from the university but everyone had remained tight-lipped, he said.
Hartono said the President of NTU Su Guan Ning had told the family that the university had a witness who saw David 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.”
The NTU alleged David had attempted to kill Chan Kap Luk, David’s professor, just before David committed suicide.
Indonesian lawyer O. C. Kaligis, an advisor to the family, said the Singapore’s coroner court process turned out to analyze the possibility whether there had been a murder attempt on Professor Chan Kap Luk.
“What we see is that the court only focused on how David Hartanto Wijaya tried to murder the professor,” Kaligis said.
“From the start there has never been an analysis on the cause of David’s death.”
The pictures that show his deep wounds were never exhibited, said the lawyer who advocated the family pro bono.
Horrendously graphic pictures of David’s corpse showed he did not commit suicide. The pictures had been analyzed by Indonesian forensic experts Djaja Surya Atmadja and Evi Untoro, and they said any forensic doctor around the world would see from the forensic report that David’s body had defense wounds.
“It was absolutely not a suicide.”
Iwan Piliang, a blogger who has been accompanying the family since the beginning, said that they would bring forward two forensic experts from Indonesia who had analyzed David’s body from the Singaporean doctors’ forensic report and pictures of his body, “including a digital forensic expert who is the one and only expert in Indonesia.” (bbs/iwp)
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Widjaja: 'We were not angry with David'
| NTU Student's Death | |||||
| 'We were not angry with David' | |||||
| Brother of dead NTU student says family didn't blame latter after he lost scholarship | |||||
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HE chatted with his brother over the Internet regularly, during which they would update each other on their lives.
Their mother would also send SMSes to David Hartanto Widjaja daily to find out how he was doing. Yesterday, David's elder brother, William Hartanto Widjaja, 24, painted a picture of a close-knit family at the coroner's inquiry into his death. Said Mr Widjaja, an IT consultant: 'We always share and discuss our problems and activities with our parents. We are a close family. It's easy to speak to our parents regarding our problems.' David, 21, a final-year electrical and electronic engineering student at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU), fell four storeys to his death at about 10.30am on 2 Mar. He had allegedly stabbed Associate Professor Chan Kap Luk, 45, the supervisor of his final-year project, in his office earlier that day. Mr Widjaja said he and his brother would share their problems with each other. But David never mentioned that he was having trouble with his final year project or that he had other personal issues. Mr Widjaja also said that David would forward him the e-mails which he had received from NTU. He would then print them out for their parents so that they could be updated about David's progress in school. 'My parents would also call him once every one or two weeks,' said Mr Widjaja. He described his brother as an easy-going and cheerful person who liked to read books and play computer games. Talkative & cheerful The two of them shared a room till David was 17. David came to Singapore to study on an Asean scholarship in 2005. Since then, their parents had visited him twice. The last time the family saw him was during Chinese New Year in January, when David went back to Jakarta. Mr Widjaja said that there was 'nothing unusual' about his brother during his six-day visit back home. 'He was his usual talkative and cheerful self. He didn't appear stressed or anything,' he said. He added that their mother had asked David about the progress of his final year project, but David did not seem worried and said that he would be completing it. 'My parents had full confidence in him and never pressured him,' he said. Mr Widjaja also told the court that the family knew David played online games till very late at night. He said that he and his parents had advised him to cut down on the amount of time he spent on gaming. Mr Widjaja added that they were not surprised to learn that David's scholarship had been terminated as they had 'anticipated' it. When asked by his family's lawyer, Mr Shashi Nathan, how his parents reacted when they were told of the termination, Mr Widjaja said: 'My parents just told him to decrease his (online) playing time and concentrate on his studies. 'We were not angry with him. His results had dropped but it was still good.' Mr Widjaja said that the family was able to pay for David's school fees as he had only one semester to go before he graduated. When asked by Mr Nathan if David had mentioned that he was unhappy or angry with anyone, Mr Widjaja said: 'David never got angry (with anyone). 'He never (thought about) revenge. He was a very light-hearted person.' Mr Widjaja added that he did not think that thoughts of suicide and murder would ever be on his brother's mind. Last week, the inquiry was told that investigators had found a text file in David's laptop. Difficult In the text file, the author had lashed out at his family and described his mother as controlling. The writer said that his mother treated him like a child, which irritated him. He added that his life had become much more 'difficult and complicated' after he entered university. In the three months before David's death, the laptop user had also searched for and visited websites relating to suicide and murder. Mr Widjaja said that he last communicated with his brother on 28 Feb, two days before his death. In their online conversation, David had asked his brother about the specifications of a new laptop he was eyeing. The brothers also chatted about a new online game that was coming out in Singapore. The Widjaja family held a press conference during the lunch break yesterday. They were adamant that David did not take his own life. Mr Widjaja will continue to take the stand today. |
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