Activist gets four years for subversion
Activist gets four years for subversion
SURABAYA (JP): A Democratic People's Party (PRD) student
activist was sentenced to four years here yesterday for
subversion.
The 25-year-old M. Soleh, who sat wearing a red headband
inscribed with "Democracy or Death" when the verdict was read
out, branded his trial mere play acting afterward.
"The council of judges should not be taken seriously. I am not
guilty and I reject this verdict," he screamed upon hearing the
decision.
The court was packed, mostly with Surabaya student activists.
Prosecutor Ida Kemang Pulawidana had previously sought a five
year jail term for the politics student at Surabaya's Wijaya
Kusuma University.
Soleh is the last of three subversion defendants to be jailed
by the Surabaya district court. The other two, Dita Indahsari and
Coen Husein Pontoh, were sentenced Tuesday to six and four years
respectively.
Like Dita and Pontoh, Soleh was found guilty of sowing hatred
against the government and undermining national unity when he
helped organize a massive demonstration in Surabaya last July.
The judges said that Soleh was guilty of organizing a series
of antigovernment activities besides the labor strike involving
an estimated 10,000 workers from 10 factories in the western
suburbs of the East Java capital.
The verdict declared that Soleh and the other activists had
jeopardized national stability and reduced workers' productivity
when they led the labor strike.
Soleh was the leader of the local branch of Student Solidarity
for Democracy, which had affiliated to the unrecognized PRD.
Eleven PRD senior activists are on trial for subversion in
Jakarta. They have been charged with undermining the state.
The sentencing was marred by an incident in which an
unidentified man punched Soleh when he was led to a waiting van
to take him to the detention house.
"Never fool around in court," the attacker was heard as saying
after he hit the convict. The security officers did not
intervene.
But Soleh appeared undeterred and shouted, "This was a framed
trial, a trial without justice," as he was shoved into the van.
His lawyer, Trimoelja D. Soerjadi, said he was concerned about
the prosecution of the three student activists because of their
political beliefs.
"It was naked political engineering," said Trimoelja, the
recipient of the 1996 Yap Thiam Hien human rights award from
Indonesia's Foundation for Human Rights Studies. (nur/pan)