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)