Sri Bintang Pamungkas rubbishes prosecutor's evidence<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Outspoken politician Sri Bintang Pamungkas has
\nasked the Central Jakarta district court to free him of all
\ncharges because the public prosecutors had failed to prove him
\nguilty of slandering President Soeharto.<\/p>\n
Sri Bintang, a former member of the House of Representatives,
\ntold the panel of judges on Wednesday that the chief of the team
\nof prosecutors, P. Sitinjak, had not used the original recording
\nof his speech.<\/p>\n
The prosecutors claimed that the tape held a recording of a
\ndiscussion at the Berlin Technische Universitaet during the
\ncourse of which Bintang allegedly called Soeharto a dictator.<\/p>\n
Two weeks ago Sitinjak asked the court to sentence Sri Bintang
\nto four years in jail for defaming President Soeharto.<\/p>\n
Bintang said yesterday that the voice on the tape played by
\nSitinjak in the court room to support his plea for Bintang's
\nindictment, failed to help the prosecutor's case because it was
\nnot his voice on the tape.<\/p>\n
\"Even if the prosecutors were to use computer technology to
\nprove this is my voice, the nature of this technology, which is
\nwide open to manipulation, would make their \"proof\" meaningless,\"
\nsaid the defendant in his defense statement, which lasted over
\nseven hours.<\/p>\n
Bintang had earlier asked the court to bring in Police Capt.
\nMubyarto, who made the first charge against him based on the
\ntape, to testify.<\/p>\n
According to the defendant the officer first discovered the
\ntape and made the transcription.<\/p>\n
The defendant also said that the four students, who were flown
\nin by the government from Berlin to testify, were not qualified
\nto support the prosecution because they are relatives of the
\nmilitary attache at the Indonesian Consulate General in Berlin.<\/p>\n
\"The transcription itself cannot be used in court sessions
\nbecause it needs to be edited by experts,\" Bintang said.<\/p>\n
He said that the prosecutors have also failed to prove that
\nthe tape or its transcription were really from the discussion.<\/p>\n
\"Using the tape and its transcription as material evidence
\nonly demonstrates the prosecutions hard-headedness and highlights
\nthe fact the phrases have been taken out of context,\" Bintang
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
He added that this practice is not very different to that of
\nfascist countries who resort to such authoritarian ways to push
\npolitical opponents into a corner. Bintang acknowledged that
\nintelligence officers have been tailing him and recording
\neverything he says since 1993.<\/p>\n
Mohammad Assegaf, who leads the team of defense lawyers, asked
\nthe panel of judges to adjourn the hearing to another day to read
\ntheir defense statement, but Sitinjak voiced an objection.<\/p>\n
Presiding judge Syoffinan Sumantri overruled the objection and
\ndeclared the hearing adjourned until April 3. (16)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/sri-bintang-pamungkas-rubbishes-prosecutors-evidence-1447893297",
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