Fuad Muhammad Syafruddin

A banner commemorating Udin Fuad Muhammad Syafruddin (18 February 1963 – 16 August 1996), best known by his pen name Udin, was an Indonesian journalist who was murdered in 1996. A reporter at the Yogyakarta daily newspaper Bernas, he published a series of articles on corruption in the Bantul Regency in the months before his death. On 13 August, he was attacked at his house by two unidentified assailants using a metal rod and taken to the hospital. He died three days later without regaining consciousness.

His murder became a national cause célèbre. Several independent inquiries concluded that local government officials had been involved. However, the Bantul police early on discounted a political motive. Instead, they arrested a local driver named Dwi Sumaji for the murder, alleging a motive of jealousy. Sumaji was later acquitted after the prosecution withdrew its case owing to a lack of evidence. The police in turn were successfully sued for their mishandling of the case and deliberate destruction of evidence. The murder has never been solved, and is expected to be unprosecutable after 2014 due to Indonesia's 18-year statute of limitations on murder.

Early life Udin was born on 18 February 1963, a date considered unlucky in the Javanese calendar as it fell on a kliwon Monday. His father was Wagiman Dzuchoti, a mosque watchman, and his mother was Mujiah; Udin had five siblings. As a young man, Udin had wanted to join the Indonesian military, but was unable due to his family's lack of political connections. Instead, he worked various manual labour jobs, including stonemason.

Journalism In the ten years prior to his death, Udin was a freelance reporter for Bernas, a daily newspaper of Yogyakarta, As a result of this perceived harassment, Udin had filed multiple complaints with the Legal Aid Institute in Yogyakarta.

Investigation and cause célèbre

Investigation into the assault began even before Udin's death. The police began their investigation on 13 August, but were hampered as the crime scene had been contaminated during the commotion after the assault. Under the command of Sergeant Major Edy Wuryanto, the police began by collecting Udin's notes and blood from his family; the family had received several bags of blood from Bethesda and were planning to bury it with the body.

Meanwhile, five members of the Indonesian Journalists Association (PWI) formed a fact-finding team on 14 August under the leadership of Putut Wiryawan and Asril Sutan. The team read the articles written by Udin in the previous six months, looking for any coverage which could have led to the attack; they concluded that most of his articles could have been a trigger. The committee eventually focused on the bribery allegations against Sudarmo, as those were the only ones exclusively covered in Bernas, as well as a case of election rigging. Another team, from Bernas, known as the "White Kijang" team for the type of car they drove, investigated the case independently when the PWI team failed to share the information they had gathered.

Udin's death swiftly became a national cause célèbre, The Committee to Protect Journalists sent a letter to President Suharto that demanded a full investigation into Udin's death, with the results made public.

Aftermath

On 6 June, several weeks after President Suharto resigned, Sudarmo was ousted from his office after students conducted a sit-in at the Bantul Assembly House. He was soon convicted of corruption for his payment to the Dharmais Foundation, but the conviction was overturned by a higher court, after which Sudarmo retired. Wuryanto never served time for his disposal of Udin's blood.

Sumaji's defence initially prepared a legal case for wrongful imprisonment, but the driver chose not to pursue it. He was unable to work for three years due to the infamy he had acquired from the case, but by 2000 was driving a public bus near Mount Merapi. By 2000, Marsiyem had married a neighbour, with whom she had a child.

The Alliance of Independent Journalists created the "Udin Award" in Udin's honour, "given for exceptional contribution to press freedom". In 2010, the organisation also petitioned the National Police to take over the case, noting that under Indonesian law, the case could be declared "expired" in 2014.