Students fined Rp 2,000 each, three acquitted<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Students charged with holding an illegal rally,
\nwere sentenced by the Central Jakarta District Court on Tuesday
\nto pay fines of Rp 2,000 each (25 US cents), while three others
\nwho were wrongfully arrested were acquitted.<\/p>\n
The 45 students, who called themselves the People's Protest
\nAlliance, decided to appeal to the Supreme Court shortly after
\nthe judges -- Made Karna, Bambang S., Djafri Djamal and I Gede
\nSumitra -- announced the verdicts.<\/p>\n
The defendants -- most of whom were from the National
\nUniversity with several others being senior high school students
\n-- told the judges that they were beaten and kicked by police
\nofficers during their arrest.<\/p>\n
The students were arrested when they held a street rally near
\nthe House of Representatives building on Jl. Gatot Subroto in
\nCentral Jakarta on Monday.<\/p>\n
During the rally, they demanded that Armed Forces members
\nrelinquish their positions at the House of Representatives. They
\nalso called for a free and fair general election.<\/p>\n
\"We were arrested shortly after getting out of the buses. We
\nhad not even delivered any speeches,\" Andre told the judges.
\nOther students gave similar testimonies.<\/p>\n
Pablo Castelo, one of the students' lawyers, citing Article 12
\nof Law No. 9\/1998 on freedom of speech, told judge Made that the
\narrest was illegal since the number of demonstrators was less
\nthan 100 people.<\/p>\n
But Made and the other judges insisted that the defendants
\nwere guilty as they conducted a street rally without telling the
\npolice, as is required by law.<\/p>\n
\"Although your goal is noble, you have to abide by the law,\"
\nMade said.<\/p>\n
Pablo strongly protested the verdict, saying that the judges
\nhad failed to obtain testimonies from the defendants and had
\nfailed to take lawyers' statements into consideration.<\/p>\n
The defendants, who arrived at the court at 11 p.m. in two
\npolice trucks, left the court at 3 p.m. marching and singing with
\ntheir fellow students.<\/p>\n
The three students acquitted were identified as Syamsu,
\nFirmansyah and Lutfie.<\/p>\n
The three, who were arrested along with the 45 students, told
\nthe court that they were making a phone call and waiting for
\nbuses when they were arrested.<\/p>\n
After being declared not guilty, the three, accompanied by
\nlawyers from the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights
\nAssociation, said that they would sue police for wrongful arrest.<\/p>\n
\"The police should be charged for the wrongful arrests to make
\nthem more careful to arrest student demonstrators only,\" Syamsu
\nsaid. (jun)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/students-fined-rp-2000-each-three-acquitted-1447893297",
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