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.