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)