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)