GOVT MONITORING DAVID'S DEATH CASE IN SINGAPORE

Jakarta, July 31 (ANTARA) - The Indonesian government keeps monitoring the development of the death case of David Hartanto Widjaja following the Singapore coroner's court ruling.

The director of Indonesian citizen protection and legal entities, Teguh Wardoyo, said here on Thursday "the government is looking at opportunities within the Singapore law. The government is still monitoring it," he said when asked about the government's steps after the ruling.

He however said that judiciary was an independent institution and in view of that both Indonesian and Singaporean governments could not intefere it.

He further said that the government had already carried out its duty in protecting its citizens by helping and facilitating David's family until the coroner's court ruling.

"We still help and the government will respect the family's decision," he said.

David's family expressed the hope earlier that the government would help following the court's ruling.

Due to the ruling the opportunity to re-open the case was gone because the court was a coroner's court which only ruled including establishing if the case was closed or still open.

On July 29 the Singapore's court ruled that David's case was a suicide case.

The Indonesian student at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University died last March after falling from the fourth floor of the campus.

His mentor Professor Chan Kap Luk accused David of committing suicided after trying to stab him.

However David's family, through their lawyer, had denied it, saying they believed David, a Science Olympic Competition champion, had been killed.

They said based on forensic photographs it was very obvious that David's leg had been twisted before and his arms were sliced.

They said they also found a fact that David had been bloody at the professor's room, at the emergency stair and at a glass bridge.

In addition to it, the professor only had two wounds on his back while David 18 stab wounds, they said.