DENPASAR ~

The Bali Police named Margriet Megawe a suspect in the Engeline murder case as the investigation team has collected enough evidence.

“The investigation team has named Mrs MM a suspect based on ample initial evidence,” Bali Police Chief Inspector General Ronny Sompie said in an interview with a private television station.

He, however, refused to elaborate the evidence which led to suspicion that Engeline, 8, was killed by her own foster mother, Margriet, 60.

“We are not in a court, so I will not discuss it,” Sompie said.

The evidence was based on the findings of forensic experts from Sanglah Public Hospital in Denpasar, and the forensic laboratory teams of the Bali Police as well as the Police Headquarters in Jakarta after they had searched the criminal scene in Margriet’s house in Denpasar.

However, Margriet refused to be interrogated for the first time by investigators at the General Directorate of Criminal Investigation Bali Police as a suspect of murder case.

“She was going be in-BAP (dossier) as a murder suspect, the suspect (Margriet) was not willing to do it,” said Margriet Megawe attorney, Hotma Sitompul in Denpasar on Monday.

According to him, the refusal to be examined because previously Bali Police Chief, Inspector General Ronny Sompie said that investigators already have three preliminary evidence that make 60-year-old woman as a suspect of killing her adopted girl, Engeline.

Three preliminary evidences are Agus statement stating that Margriet was involved in the murder, expert witness testimony Forensic team General Hospital Center of Sanglah and the results at the crime scene by INAFIS and Forensic Laboratory of Police Headquarters.

Bali Police handle cases of child neglect that afflicts the poor girl while Denpasar Police handles Engeline murder case.

However Hotma is questioning in the plan of examination of his client in the case of murder, all investigators are Bali Police.

“This examination should be by Denpasar Police, but under the control of Bali Police, in the examination, all of them are Bali Police officers, “he said.

Hotma accused the determination of Engeline’s murderer to his client is not based on facts and data, but the pressure from the public.

Related to that, Head of Public Relations of Bali Police Commissioner Hery Wiyanto denied it because no one could intervene the investigation.

“No one can influence and intervene the investigation because we have legal effect if the investigation carried out any intervention or influence of others, “he said.

Investigators, he said, requires a process and caution in gathering evidence to strengthen the status of the suspect for almost 18 days since the poor girl’s body was found buried in the backyard of Margriet’s house in Sedap Malam street No. 26 Denpasar on Wednesday (10/6).

Meanwhile the Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection Minister Yohana Yembise is of the viewpoint that the naming of Margriet Megawe by the Bali Police as a suspect in the Angeline murder case confirmed her intuition.

“The naming of Margriet as a suspect is in accordance with my hunch, and I have said that the murder of Angeline was a conspiracy,” Yohana stated after she met Vice President Jusuf Kalla here on Tuesday.

Further, the women’s empowerment and child protection minister noted that every mother should be responsible to protect her children.

Therefore, the minister expressed hope that the harshest possible punishment is meted out to the killer of Engeline, an eight-year-old girl whose body was found buried in the backyard of Margriet’s house in Denpasar, Bali.