Investigation of Bintang continues<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Former legislator Sri Bintang Pamungkas went
\nthrough another round of questioning yesterday concerning his
\nalleged role in a series of activities opposing the Indonesian
\ngovernment in Germany in April.<\/p>\n
Bintang said the investigation at the National Police
\nHeadquarters expanded from questioning on his personal experience
\nin Germany to the involvement of other people in demonstrations
\nand seminars in that country.<\/p>\n
"Police investigators let me listen to a recording tape, in
\nwhich a woman was speaking at an academic forum," he told
\nreporters at the office of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation
\nafter the questioning yesterday.<\/p>\n
He said that he was asked whether he could identify the
\nspeaker, whose voice he heard on the tape.<\/p>\n
"I told them that I had no idea who was speaking as the tape
\nwas too noisy to recognize the voice," said the former legislator
\nfrom the United Development Party.<\/p>\n
When the police asked him whether Yeni Rosa Damayanti, a human
\nrights activist, also delivered a speech on the day he lectured
\nat Humboldt University in Berlin on April 10, 1995, he
\nacknowledged this was true.<\/p>\n
"Yeni was asked by the organizing committee to deliver a
\nspeech right after me," he said.<\/p>\n
He said he had not realized previously that Yeni also had been
\ninvited to speak at the seminar, saying that he thought he was
\nthe only Indonesian invited by the university.<\/p>\n
Bintang insisted that the investigation into his activities is
\n"a mistake".<\/p>\n
"The investigation should be stopped because the police do not
\nhave adequate evidence of my involvement in the protests, which
\noccurred at the same time President Soeharto was on an official
\nvisit to Germany," he said.<\/p>\n
"If the government thinks I defamed the President and the
\ngovernment in my speech, the government is wrong," he said,
\nadding that he had no intention of doing so.<\/p>\n
Bintang has been questioned repeatedly over a statement in the
\nseminar in which he allegedly called President Soeharto a
\ndictator.<\/p>\n
"I only disagreed with several policies of the President," he
\nadded, saying that he believed the tape had been edited.<\/p>\n
The questioning will continue on Monday. (imn)<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/investigation-of-bintang-continues-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }