Bintang insists on his innocence

Bintang insists on his innocence

JAKARTA (JP): Outspoken politician Sri Bintang Pamungkas
insisted yesterday that Central Jakarta prosecutors have failed
to prove he slandered President Soeharto.

The former United Development Party member of the House of
Representatives reiterated his demand that the court drops all
charges against him.

In the packed and noisy courtroom, Bintang and his defense
lawyers said that the whole trial had been framed from the
outset. "The trial is politically motivated," he said.

Bintang is charged with insulting President Soeharto when the
former legislator addressed a seminar. He allegedly called
Soeharto a dictator who has violated the 1945 Constitution.

Prosecutors have demanded that Bintang be jailed for four
years. Yesterday, he made his last defense statement before the
court announces its verdict on May 8.

Bintang insisted that the word "dictator" he used in his
address at the Technische Universitaet of Berlin last year is by
no means slanderous as the prosecutors have interpreted.

He said he meant to describe the government's dominance in
politics, allowing it to have control over state institutions
such as the House of Representatives.

"I believe authoritarianism is emerging in Indonesia," he
said.

Bintang's lawyer Adnan Buyung Nasution said that the
prosecutors have ignored all the hard evidence presented in favor
of his client.

"What the prosecutors presented in this court last week was
all rethoric," he said. He added that the prosecutors based their
charges on a police report, which gave flimsy evidence that
Bintang slandered the head of state.

As in the previous sessions, yesterday's trial proceedings
were marred with a verbal war between Bintang's supporters and
critics who packed the courtroom.

They continued to yell at each other after the trial was over.
More than a dozen police officers were on hand to prevent the
hostility from bursting into physical clashes.

The police forced Bintang's supporters to get into two waiting
trucks, which then carried them away. The Indonesian Legal Aid
Institute said that three people were arrested.

Meanwhile, the anti-Bintang activists called Bintang names and
pelted his car with stones, breaking a side mirror. There is no
news on the fate of the three people who were arrested. (prs)