Direct questioning forbidden in Pakpahan subversion trial<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The subversion trial of union leader Muchtar
\nPakpahan continued yesterday with presiding judge Djazuli P.
\nSudibyo prohibiting defense lawyers from directly questioning
\nwitnesses.<\/p>\n
Djazuli ordered lawyers to raise their questions through him.
\nOne of the lawyers, Adnan Buyung Nasution, protested the decision
\nstrongly and said the procedure was \"inefficient and confusing
\nthe witnesses\".<\/p>\n
Adnan also argued questioning witnesses through the judge
\n\"reduced the substance and essence of questions raised\".<\/p>\n
Djazuli did not give a reason for his instruction. In a
\nprevious court session he ordered defense lawyers to question
\nwitnesses indirectly. The defense lawyers protested the order,
\nthough not as strongly as yesterday.<\/p>\n
Yesterday, Djazuli rebuked Adnan for questioning labor
\nactivist Sunarty from the unrecognized Indonesian Prosperous
\nLabor Union (SBSI) that Pakpahan chairs. Sunarty was the second
\nwitness that the prosecution produced yesterday, after SBSI
\ndeputy chairman Yacub Ereste.<\/p>\n
Djazuli, however, dismissed Adnan's protest as having no basis
\nin the Criminal Code Procedures. Adnan retorted that neither did
\nCriminal Code Procedures regulate that all questions be passed to
\na witness through the judge.<\/p>\n
Witnesses Sunarty and Yacub, brought in by Prosecutor R.
\nMoekiat, testified yesterday that they were unaware Pakpahan had
\nmade the allegedly anti-government and anti-President Soeharto
\nstatements during various speeches he gave between 1995 and 1996.<\/p>\n
Sunarty told the court that the defendant had been fighting to
\nhelp workers obtain their rights through peaceful means.<\/p>\n
Judge Djadzuli adjourned yesterday's hearing until Monday.<\/p>\n
In a separate session also at the South Jakarta District
\nCourt, the subversion trial of four activists of the Democratic
\nPeople's Party (PRD) continued. The four activists are Petrus
\nHariyanto, Ken Budha Kusamandaru, Victor Da Costa and Ignatius
\nPutut Arintoko.<\/p>\n
The activists were charged under the 1963 Anti-Subversion Law
\nfor alleged involvement in activities which undermined the
\ngovernment and the state ideology Pancasila. They are facing the
\ndeath sentence.<\/p>\n
Manifesto<\/p>\n
At the Central Jakarta District Court, the trial of PRD
\nchairman Budiman Sudjatmiko also continued. The prosecution
\npresented politician Sri Bintang Pamungkas in an attempt to prove
\nthat the youth activist had been engaged in subversion.<\/p>\n
However, Bintang who is in a legal battle against the
\ngovernment, said the \"political manifesto\" upon which the
\nprosecution tried to build their subversion case against Budiman,
\nwas actually a rehash of old issues.<\/p>\n
The content of the \"political manifesto\" that Budiman read out
\nwhen declaring the establishment of PRD in 1996 included a call
\nfor the abolition of the existing laws on politics and for a
\nreview of the dual function of the Armed Forces, as well as a
\nprotest against social disparity.<\/p>\n
\"There's nothing new inside Budiman's speech,\" Bintang said.
\n\"Their goal is similar to that of my own party, namely making
\nthis country more democratic based on the 1945 Constitution and
\nPancasila state ideology.\"<\/p>\n
Bintang, a former legislator from the United Development Party
\n(PPP) who was dismissed from the House of Representatives in
\n1995, formed a new political party called the Indonesian
\nDemocratic Union Party (PUDI) on May 29, 1996. The government
\nnever recognized this party.<\/p>\n
Bintang said in his testimony that most of the demands of
\nBudiman's organization had previously been pushed forward by
\nPUDI.<\/p>\n
\"Criticism about the dual-function (in security and politics)
\nof the Armed Forces, the demand that the political laws be
\nrevoked, protests against social disparity, had all been voiced
\nby my party before,\" said the University of Indonesia lecturer.<\/p>\n
\"And I've never been tried for declaring my party and its own
\npolitical manifesto,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Budiman's lawyer Luhut Pangaribuan questioned Bintang using a
\nstatement from the prosecutor's file. \"The prosecutor charged
\nthat the Democratic People's Party gave an award to persons who
\nevidently defied the government. Are you one of them ?\"<\/p>\n
Bintang said he had once been called \"a rebel\" and accused of
\nbeing a communist. \"But the truth is I just have opinions which
\nare very different from those of the government's,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Bintang was among several people who received the PRD award;
\nthe others include senior journalist Goenawan Mohamad and writer
\nPramoedya Ananta Toer.<\/p>\n
\"After I received the award, I told the activists of PRD that
\nI also support a multiparty political system and oppose the
\nsingle party system....only in communist states does the single
\nparty system exist,\" said Bintang. (35\/08)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/direct-questioning-forbidden-in-pakpahan-subversion-trial-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}