Charges against students upheld

Charges against students upheld

JAKARTA (JP): Judge Moegihardjo of South Jakarta District
Court has rejected the request of the defense lawyers of 12
National University students that he legally annul the
prosecutor's indictment. The students are charged with assault
and brawling.

"The board of judges have assessed that the indictment made by
prosecutor H.P. Silitonga has already fulfilled all requirements
stipulated in the Criminal Procedure Code. Therefore there is no
reason why the judge should annul it," Moegihardjo said
yesterday.

In the previous session lawyer Luhut Pangaribuan of the
Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation said the indictment of prosecutor
Silitonga should be annulled since the police had failed to show
the students the required arrest warrants when they were taken
into custody.

Luhut is the lawyer who represents six of the 12 students
being tried for assault in two separate trials.

The six defendants are Benedictus Satrio Widyanarto, Yahdi
Jamhur, Rakai Aria Dipa Erlangga, Darmawan, Budi Murdiyanto and
Reza Pahlevi.

The six defendants are among 12 students -- all members of the
Association of Nature Lovers (Himpala) -- who are accused of
intentionally assaulting four members of the university's student
regiment and of burning the regiment's headquarters on Oct. 18
last year.

The alleged attack came after regiment members reportedly
destroyed the association's secretariat.

The incident, which gave rise to the two trials, occurred
during a celebration of the university's 45th anniversary. Five
students were injured in the fighting.

Judge Moegihardjo also decided to continue the court
proceedings by examining three witnesses in the next trial on
Feb. 14 based on the indictment of prosecutor Silitonga.

According to the prosecutor, the three witnesses will be
Bambang Permadi, the National University's Deputy Rector, Furqan
Buchari, the university's Students Affairs Dept. Chief, and T.B.
Yanuar Sumawinata, the head of the university's Household
Affairs.

Shortly after the judge finished reading his decision, two
defendants, Yahdi Jamhur and Reza Pahlevi, rose from their seats
and told the judge that they would make a statement.

At first judge Moegihardjo refused to allow the defendants to
make a replying statement. "You can talk to your lawyers then let
them talk to me," the judge said. But he finally decided to allow
them to do so.

"I allow you to do so under two conditions, the statement must
be delivered only by one of you and the contents must not deviate
too far from the contents of my decision," Moegihardjo said.

Yahdi Jamhur, who represents his five other friends, raised an
objection to the judge's decision not to annul the prosecutor's
indictment.

"Your Honor, we can't understand why we're here because
everybody knows that the riot in our campus were involving
hundreds of students. But we are wondering why the police and the
prosecutor blamed it only on us," Jamhur said.

He ended his statement by saying that he would file an appeal
against judge Moegihardjo's decision.

Indonesian law states that a party can file an appeal against
the judge's decision if he or she feel that an indictment is not
fair enough to be used as the basis of the court examination
without stopping the court proceedings.

In the session of the trial for the other six students,
Moegihardjo also made the same decision against two teams of
defense lawyers.

The first team consists of lawyers from the Indonesian
Advocate Association (AAI), who represented Agus Heryana Anirun
and Wahyu Sugito. The second is from the Jakarta Legal Aid
Foundation who represented Syech Al Djufri Abu Bakar, Kusnadi
Darisan, Sudrajat Trisna and Indra Mulia Ismet Kamil.

Unlike the first session, the judge directly offered one of
the defendants to make their statement on his decision. The offer
was then accepted by Syech Al Djufri Abu Bakar, who said the
judge's decision was not fair.

"We will file an appeal," said Syech.

The judge then adjourned the trial of the six defendants who
were tried in the second session until Feb. 16 to hear the
testimonies of the same three witnesses, who will also be
examined on Feb. 14. (mas)