Bintang threatening legislator over arrest
Bintang threatening legislator over arrest
JAKARTA (JP): Rebel politician Sri Bintang Pamungkas
threatened yesterday to sue a politician from the dominant Golkar
organization for allegedly plunging him into legal trouble.
Bintang alleged that Moestahid Astari, chairman of the Golkar
faction in the House of Representatives, had asked the Attorney
General's Office to question him about his Idul Fitri greetings
cards urging recipients to boycott the May 29 general election.
Bintang, chairman of the unrecognized Indonesian Democratic
Union Party (PUDI), announced his plan at the Attorney General's
Office, where he is being detained.
Bintang, together with PUDI activists Julius Usman and Saleh
Abdullah, were arrested on March 5 on subversion charges in
connection with the controversial seasonal cards.
The cards contained PUDI's three-point agenda: to boycott the
1997 election, to reject President Soeharto's reelection and
prepare a new order for post-Soeharto 1998.
The cards were sent to numerous people, including Vice
President Try Sutrisno, cabinet ministers, Armed Forces
headquarters and House members.
One day before Bintang's arrest, Moestahid told the media that
what Bintang had done was an attack on the government and he
called on the authorities to question the dissident politician.
Bambang Widjojanto, one of Bintang's lawyers, confirmed that
the team of lawyers had looked into the possibility of suing
Moestahid. He added they believed it was Moestahid who reported
Bintang to the attorney general over the cards.
According to Bambang, the investigators kept refusing to
answer Bintang's questions regarding who had filed the complaint
over the controversial cards.
Bambang told The Jakarta Post that besides Moestahid, the
lawyers also considered suing the chief of the Attorney General's
Office's Center for Intelligence Operations, Gatot Hendrarto, and
Attorney General Singgih for detaining him without clear reasons.
"We will sue them also because Bintang was arrested without
the authorities having sufficient evidence of what Bintang had
done wrong," Bambang said.
On March 5, Bintang, Julius, and Saleh were invited by Gatot
to "have lunch together and to discuss several things" in a
restaurant near the Attorney General's Office. The three were
arrested there.
Bambang said that the lawyers also planned to demand a pre-
trial hearing to ascertain whether the arrest was legal.
Bintang's wife, Ernalia, who visited Bintang yesterday, told
reporters that her husband still refused to answer investigators'
questions until his seven questions had been answered.
These covered the reason for the arrest, the specific charges
and who filed the complaint.
Bintang said he was not happy with the appointment of S.T.
Silangit to replace prosecutor Mulyono, whom he rejected on the
grounds that the latter was allegedly corrupt.
"The substitute prosecutor (Silangit) is worse. I want him to
be replaced," he said.
On Wednesday, Bintang demanded that Mulyono be replaced
because of his alleged involvement in the latest corruption
scandal at the Attorney General's Office.
He was replaced the following day, but Deputy General for
Special Crimes Ismudjoko said the replacement had nothing to do
with Bintang's demand.
Ismudjoko said that Mulyono had been cleared of any wrongdoing
in connection with the corruption scandal over the handling of
the confiscated assets of jail escapee Eddy Tansil. (05)