Court annuls rector's suspension decision

JAKARTA (JP): The Jakarta Administrative Court annulled on Tuesday a decision made by the rector of the University of Indonesia on the suspension of six student activists.

The three-member panel of judges, presided over by Sudarto Radyosumarno, told rector Asman Budi Santosa to allow the students to continue their studies and ordered him to pay them a total of Rp 500,000 in compensation.

The verdict was based on a lawsuit filed by six students, Lucky A. Lontoh, Dhoho A. Sastro, Dipo A. Prayoga, Fezan Gustano Razak, Mahawisnu and Dewi Astuti against the rector. They also demanded Rp 5 million in compensation.

Four of the plaintiffs are from UI's law school, one from the school of industrial engineering and one from the school of Letters.

The rector had suspended the students for between six months and one year for conducting a protest against the university's decision to levy additional tutorial fees.

They were prohibited from attending classes and other academic activities, beginning January 2001, based on the rector's decision dated Nov.16, 2000.

The rector said he would consider whether or not to appeal against the court's verdict.

As for the students, they realized that the legal battle might still proceed.

"Even though the court ruled in favor of the students, the legal fight is not over yet," the students' lawyers, Surya Tjandra and Erna Ratnaningsih from the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute, said in a statement.

The lawyers said they based their prediction on past experiences as the rector had not complied with the court's preliminary order to delay the decision on the students' suspension, pending the court's verdict.

A lawyer of the rector, Retno Murniati, had earlier said her client ignored the court's ruling because it had no strong legal basis. The court then gave him a warning, but it also went unheeded.

In February last year, the six students protested the increase in fees as part of the Quality of Education Improvement Fund. Under the program, students have to pay an additional Rp 1 million for their studies at the School of Engineering, the School of Mathematics and Exact Sciences, and Rp 750,000 if they enroll at the School of Social Sciences, on top of Rp 500,000 in tuition fees payable per semester. (sim)