Adiguna trial set to resume Thursday

JAKARTA: Prosecutor confirmed on Wednesday that Thursday's hearing on whether to proceed with the trial of murder suspect Adiguna Sutowo would go ahead as scheduled, even though the defendant was still being treated in hospital for asthma.

"We haven't received any news from the doctors, but he will probably attend the hearing. However, the trial will continue with or without him," prosecutor Danu Sebayang told The Jakarta Post.

Adiguna, younger brother of property tycoon Ponco Sutowo, was taken to the Pertamina hospital, South Jakarta, late on Monday after falling unconscious in his cell at Salemba prison, Central Jakarta.

He has been charged under Article 338 of the Criminal Code for shooting Yohannes Berchmans Haerudy Natong to death. The article carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.

The prosecutors have also charged him under the 1951 Emergency Law on illegal possession of firearms, which carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. -- JP