Court confirms Nuku's verdict

Court confirms Nuku's verdict

JAKARTA (JP): The Supreme Court has rejected the appeal of
human rights activist Nuku Soleiman, who was convicted of
defaming President Soeharto last year, his lawyer said yesterday.

Denny Christyanto, one of Nuku's lawyers, said that he did not
receive notice of the Supreme Court's verdict until Dec. 28,
1994, although the verdict was made on Sept. 21.

The Supreme Court judges said in their decision that they
upheld the previous verdict of the Jakarta High Court, which
sentenced him to five years in prison, and rejected the legal
grounds for appeal cited by Nuku.

"There is nothing wrong in the high court's and the district
court's verdicts," Judge Tomy Boestomi, who presided over the
appeal, said.

"Judges of the Jakarta High Court and the Central Jakarta
District Court followed the correct investigation procedures in
the lower court and the court of appeal," he added.

In his appeal, Nuku criticized the Central Jakarta District
Court for violating the procedures of investigation by
restricting his right to speak and defend himself during the
trial.

He also criticized the Jakarta High Court and the district
court for having erroneously implemented Article 134 of the
Criminal Code in relation to the charges that his actions defamed
President Soeharto.

Nuku, who still chairs the Pijar Foundation human rights
group, was arrested during a demonstration at the House of
Representatives on Nov. 25, 1993.

He was found guilty of defaming the President by producing and
distributing stickers which attacked the name of Soeharto. For
his crime he was sentenced to four years imprisonment by the
Central Jakarta District Court in February last year. The
sentence was two years less than the maximum penalty allowed by
law and sought by the state prosecutors.

The prosecutors, as well as Nuku and his lawyers, then
appealed to the Jakarta High Court.

The high court then reaffirmed the Central Jakarta District
Court's guilty verdict against Nuku on May 16 last year and added
one year to the jail term.(imn)