Court asked to free Hartono

JAKARTA (JP): The lawyer of Hartono Setyawan, the alleged owner of a high-class brothel, asked the South Jakarta District Court yesterday to acquit his client of all charges.

"I asked the honorable judge to acquit my client of all charges," said lawyer Hadi Mulyono Upas.

Hadi said the prosecutor failed to prove that Hartono is a panderer.

Hartono has a long-standing reputation as a panderer employing high-class call girls. He was arrested on July 27 at his mansion in the Pondok Indah housing complex in South Jakarta.

Hartono was picked up following the arrest at the Century Park Hotel, Central Jakarta, of six occupants of the house on Jl. Prapanca 4, South Jakarta, which is widely known as a brothel.

The six people taken into custody were Kho Ghay Goen, Hamzah, Ari Dewanto and three known prostitutes, Nova Novianti, Natalia Risani and Nunuk Sriyanti, who allegedly worked for Hartono.

Natalia and Nova were caught red handed in two separate rooms in Century Park hotel, central Jakarta, when they were offering their service to two businessmen, Joko Purwadi and Tampubolon.

Joko and Tampubolon in written testimonies said that they did not know the call girls worked for Hartono because somebody identified as Herman had paid Rp 1,480,000, the charge of the two girls for their three hours service, to Ari Dewanto, the brothel's driver.

However, the fact that the two girls did not directly receive the money was used by lawyer Hadi to prove that the Rp 1,480,000 (US$675) which was confiscated by police from Ari Dewanto, could be for some other transaction.

The lawyer also said that in their written testimonies Joko and Tampubolon only stated that they were dating Natalia and Nova when the police came.

Based on that, the lawyer asked Judge Stephanus Sutrisno to free his client from all charges and to order the prosecutor to give back the Rp 1,480,000 to Ari Dewanto.

The presence of Hadi took the court visitors by surprise since Hartono had not been represented by a lawyer before.

Prosecutor Rotua Marpaung has requested the presiding judge sentence Hartono to 12 months imprisonment for running a prostitution business.

On Monday Judge Stephanus Sutrisno sentenced three assistants of Hartono to five months and seven months imprisonment for their involvement in pandering.

They are Kho Ghay Goen, Hartono's right-hand man, to seven months in jail while Hamzah, the receptionist of the brothel, and Ari Dewanto, a driver working there, were sentenced to five months imprisonment.(mas)