Court delays verdict on 'Tempo'
Urip Hudiono and Sari P. Setiogi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Central Jakarta District Court postponed on Monday its much- awaited verdict in the libel case against Tempo chief editor Bambang Harymurti.
"We will deliver the verdict on Sept. 16 together with the verdicts on the other defendants, Ahmad Taufik and Teuku Iskandar Ali," presiding judge Soeripto.
The judges then immediately left the courtroom to boos and yells of "Free (Bambang)!" from the visitors' gallery.
Before announcing the postponement, the panel of judges had separately to heard the final defense submissions by Tempo journalists Taufik and Ali.
In a controversial sidelining of the country's Press Law, prosecutors have charged Bambang -- along with Taufik and Ali -- of violating the criminal law by "inciting public unrest" and defaming well-connected businessman Tomy Winata in an article titled 'Is Tomy in Tenabang?'.
The article, which was run in the weekly's March 3-9, 2003, edition, implied that Tomy was involved in the fire that gutted the Tanah Abang textile market on Feb. 19, 2003.
The prosecution has demanded a two year jail term for each of the defendants, with an additional request for Bambang's immediate arrest following the verdict.
Tempo lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis said after the trial that the delay might be because the judges needed more time to arrive at their decision.
"But I don't want to presume that there has been pressure put on the judges, although I admit that the verdict will be seen as a decisive as regards press freedom in this country."
Todung expressed the hope that even if the judges reached an unfavorable decision on his clients, at least one of them would enter a dissenting opinion.
Hundreds of supporters of press freedom had packed the Central Jakarta District Court since the session started at 10 a.m., causing serious traffic congestion on Jl. Gajah Mada.
They wore black shirts reading bearing the inscriptions, "Don't put journalists in jail" and "Press freedom for the community", and black headband bearing the slogan "Free Press".
The crowd dispersed at about midday, but their rally was followed by another one by a group calling itself the Network for Legal Supremacy and Enforcement.
In his final defense statement, Taufik asked the judges to release him on the grounds that the prosecution had failed to prove its charges and that the main witnesses had committed perjury.
"My only 'crime' in this case is that I refused to disclose my sources to those irked by the article," he said.
Taufik argued that Article 5 of Law No. 40/1999 on the press stipulates that a journalist has the right to withhold the identity of his sources.
He further asked the judges to impose a just sentence on him if they found him guilty.
"Please do not imprison me. I already know what it's like to be in jail. Please do not fine me as well, as I cannot afford it," said the 39-year-old journalist, who was imprisoned under the Soeharto regime for publishing the underground Independen tabloid, following the shut down of Tempo in 1994.
Similarly, Iskandar also rejected all of the prosecution's allegations and asked the judges to acquit him.
"Even Anwar Ibrahim was acquitted by the court in a country that many consider to be more repressive," he said.