Aceh rights abuse trial postponed, says local judge
BANDA ACEH, Aceh (JP): The unprecedented joint military- civilian tribunal of the Bantaqiah murder case has been tentatively postponed for two days, a senior judge at the district court said on Friday.
"The trial will begin at the soonest on Wednesday," said Tabyuni, the deputy chief of Banda Aceh Court.
Tabyuni said the delay was merely due to technical problems, such as protocols, the security arrangement for court attendants and the possibility that the session might be aired on TV.
Several judges for the case are still in Medan, the capital of neighboring North Sumatra province, he said.
The trial has now been delayed four times.
A total of 24 military soldiers and a civilian charged with killing Islamic religious teacher Tengku Bantaqiah and 56 of his students in the remote village of Beutong in West Aceh in July last year will stand trial before a panel of six military and civilian judges.
The chief of the Aceh Provincial Prosecutor's Office, Sukarno Yusuf, handed over the dossiers on the defendants and a list of evidence to the local district court on Friday.
Sukarno said the defendants would stand trial for various charges under the Criminal Code, such as premeditated murder, first degree murder, assault, battery and contrived assault.
"If convicted of premeditated murder, a defendant could face the death penalty. That's why we are not playing around on this case," Sukarno said.
The other charges carry maximum sentences of five years to 20 years imprisonment.
Army Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad) Capt. Inf. Anton Yuliantoro, 30, will be the highest ranked military officer to stand trial. Anton, along with 23 other soldiers, is accused of crimes against humanity.
Half of the military suspects are ranked as privates.
The only civilian suspect, Thaleb Amman Suar, 47, a local from Kampung Taya Kolak in Silih Nara district, Central Aceh, works for the military.
The military insists that Tengku Bantaqiah and his students were killed in an exchange of fire during an antirebel raid in Beutong village, but the government-sanctioned inquiry commission found no evidence of resistance when the incident occurred.
Separately in restive Pidie regency, a 15-year-old boy was killed from a grenade hurled from a passing truck at the police post in Mutiara district late on Thursday. Zulnida was the son of the Beureunuen Subdistrict Police chief.
"The grenade exploded in front of the police chief's house which is situated near the post," Pidie deputy police chief Maj. Muhammad Natsir said on Friday.
In the same regency a 28-year-old man was shot dead while working on a road project on Thursday, Natsir said. The reason for the shooting of the roadwork supervisor remains unknown.
In North Aceh, gunmen also sprayed bullets on a truck loaded with members of the Police Mobile Brigade, who were patrolling the regency's main road on Thursday.
Local police chief Lt. Col. Syafei Aksal said the attack injured two civilians who were driving a van in the opposite direction. The back of the police truck was hit.
Continuing violence in the northern tip of Sumatra in this year alone has claimed more than 300 lives, most of them civilians. (50/51/edt)