Court asked to cancel charges on Wimanjaya

JAKARTA (JP): The prosecutor asked the South Jakarta District Court on Friday revoke the indictment against controversial author Wimanjaya K. Liotohe.

Prosecutor Yudi Sutoto told the hearing, presided over by judge Muchtar Ritonga, that since the Attorney General's Office revoked its ban on circulation of his book, Prima Dosa, or Prime Sins, in 1998, the contents of the book have since then been considered lawful.

Yudi said he was referring to Paragraph 2, Article 1 of the Criminal Code that stipulates that if there is change of law after a crime is committed, the most favorable stipulations should be applied to the defendant.

"Therefore, the South Jakarta Prosecutor's Office expects the prosecution of Wimanjaya to be halted," he said.

Responding to the prosecutor's statement, judge Muchtar said the panel of judges appreciated the prosecutors' good will.

"That's what we have been expecting. We don't want the defendant to be tried just because of such an indictment," he said.

Ritonga added that with changes in regulations, there were no legal grounds to continue the case, explaining that the book was published when there was no freedom of expression under former president Soeharto.

The Attorney General's Office officially banned Prima Dosa on Jan. 25, 1994, two days after Soeharto publicly announced that the book was a personal affront to him for suggesting that he masterminded the coup attempt against president Sukarno in 1965.

The publication of Prima Dosa also prompted former Indonesian Muslim Ulemas Council (MUI) chairman, the late Hasan Basri, to call on the government to prosecute the evangelist author and not let him off because of his reported mental problems.

Hasan said the book, in addition to slandering Soeharto, had also insulted the Muslim community.

Wimanjaya, who was accompanied by his lawyer M. Safri Noer at the Friday hearing said that besides Prima Dosa, which was not available in bookstores until the downfall of Soeharto in May, 1998, he also wrote other books entitled Prima Duka or Prime Sorrows, Prima Dusta or Prime Lies, Prima Gugat or Prime Jolts and Prima Dongkrak or Prime Jacks.

Wimanjaya, who hails from Sangir Talaud in North Sulawesi, first introduced Prima Dosa at the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna and sought to have it published in the Netherlands. (01)