Adiguna trial to proceed
Adiguna trial to proceed
The Jakarta Post
Jakarta
A week after suffering an asthma attack that caused him
to miss a court hearing, a visibly weak Adiguna Sutowo sat
listlessly at the Central Jakarta District Court on Tuesday as
the panel of judges ordered that his murder trial continue.
In a previous hearing, a 10-strong defense team for Adiguna, a
wealthy 46-year-old businessman, had argued that the proceedings
should be halted because contradictory statements had been given
by witnesses.
However, the judges, comprising Lilik Mulyadi, Agus Subroto
and Mulyani, decided that it should be left to the court to
determine the credibility of the witnesses on their recollections
of the New Year's Day incident, which culminated in the murder of
25-year-old college student Rudy ...
"The truth should be determined from examining witnesses'
statements," said presiding judge Lilik Mulyadi, reading the
court's interim decision. "Therefore, the trial will continue."
In their motion to halt the proceedings, the defense, led by
Mohammad Assegaf, had also requested that the court declare the
prosecution's charges to be "obscure" and "misleading" because
the prosecution's version of events did not match with the police
investigation report's version.
However, the judges, who unanimously agreed to reject the
motion, declared that in the legal sense, "the prosecution's
charges are precise, clear and complete".
The judges did side with the defense on a couple of points:
that Adiguna should receive a fair trial and that the judges
would not be affected by intense media coverage.
The next hearing is scheduled for next Tuesday, with the six-
team prosecution, led by Andi Herman, calling its first five
witnesses. Prosecutors plan to call a total of 19 witnesses to
testify in court.
Adiguna, who is back in detention after a one-week stay in a
Rp 1.5 million per night presidential suite of Pertamina Hospital
in South Jakarta, has been charged with the murder of Rudy, who
was working as a part-time waiter at the Fluid Club in the Hilton
Hotel in Central Jakarta, over a declined debit card payment for
a Rp 150,000 (US$16) bar bill for a martini and a vodka tonic.
Prosecutors allege that at about 5 a.m. on New Year's Day,
Adiguna, the youngest son of the late Ibnu Sutowo, who was a
founder of state oil and gas firm Pertamina, used an illegally
obtained gun to fire a mortal shot at Rudy from a distance of
half a meter at the hotel club. The hotel is owned by the Sutowo
family.
Adiguna, the sole suspect in the murder of Rudy, who would
have been the first in his family to obtain a college degree, has
been charged with unpremeditated murder, punishable by a maximum
jail sentence of 15 years, and with the illegal possession of a
firearm, which carries a maximum life sentence.