Court asked to cancel charges on Wimanjaya

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)