Court asks for two German witnesses<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The Central Jakarta District Court trying
\npolitician Sri Bintang Pamungkas for allegedly insulting
\nPresident Soeharto has ordered the prosecutors to present two key
\nwitnesses who are currently living as stateless residents in
\nGermany.<\/p>\n
Presiding Judge Syoffinan Sumantri yesterday also ordered the
\ndefendant's lawyers to help contact Sri Basuki and Sunarto, both
\nparticipants in a seminar at a German university last year during
\nwhich Bintang allegedly made the derogatory remarks.<\/p>\n
Bintang is being accused by the government prosecutors of
\ncalling both Indonesia's first president Sukarno and his
\nsuccessor Soeharto dictators. He has also allegedly accused them
\nof deviating from the 1945 Constitution.<\/p>\n
Yesterday's session was scheduled to hear the testimony of the
\ntwo persons, whom the prosecutors failed to bring before the
\ncourt. Sri Basuki and Sunarto reportedly posed questions which
\ninvited Bintang to launch into one of his usually critical
\nspeeches of the government.<\/p>\n
Chief Prosecutor P. Sitinjak said he had, through the
\nIndonesian Consulate-General in Bonn, Germany, sent letters to
\nthe two requesting that they testify in the trial. Both persons
\nhave reportedly not received the letters.<\/p>\n
Sunarto, who found out about the summons from the Jakarta
\nLegal Aid Foundation (LBH), said in a letter that he could not
\nafford the risk of entering Indonesia in his stateless condition.<\/p>\n
He and Sri Basuki were former students during Sukarno's era in
\nthe 1960s who had been sent to then communist East Germany to
\nstudy.<\/p>\n
\"I'm an asylum seeker,\" Sunarto said in the letter read out
\nyesterday by Adnan Buyung Nasution, one of Bintang's lawyers.<\/p>\n
Sunarto and Sri Basuki were the most active participants of
\nthe seminar at the Technische Universitaet in Berlin on Apr. 5,
\n1995, which featured Sri Bintang Pamungkas and Yeni Rosa
\nDamayanti, a student activist.<\/p>\n
Both raised questions which contained terms such as
\n\"dictator\", \"Indonesian Communist Party (PKI)\" and \"violations
\nagainst the 1945 Constitution\".<\/p>\n
Bintang said he used the same words to paraphrase the
\nquestions before he answered them. It was those remarks which the
\nprosecutors say are slanderous.<\/p>\n
Buyung yesterday asked the chief prosecutor to again summon
\nSri Basuki and Sunarto, but this time leaving out the question of
\ntheir citizenship. The prosecutor had reportedly asked the two to
\nproduce proof of their citizenship.<\/p>\n
\"Even foreign citizens can testify before an Indonesian court
\nso the prosecutor's request was groundless,\" Buyung said.<\/p>\n
Presiding Judge Syoffinan Sumantri gave the prosecutors three
\nweeks to bring the two witnesses to court. The trial was
\nadjourned to March 6. (imn)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/court-asks-for-two-german-witnesses-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}