Court doubts Loebby's expertise

JAKARTA (JP): A judge at the West Jakarta District Court interrupted and postponed the testimony of criminal law expert Loebby Loqman as the law professor failed to provide a letter verifying his expertise.

Loebby was about to testify on behalf of drug defendant Donny Hendrian, who was arrested for alleged possession of drugs in a hotel last August.

Presiding judge Hadi Lelana told the hearing that a letter of recommendation was needed as formal evidence that Loebby was really a criminal law expert.

"The defendant's lawyers must obtain the letter of recommendation from the institution where Prof. Loebby is employed, declaring him an expert in criminal law," he said.

The judge then adjourned the hearing until next week to allow the lawyers to secure the letter of recommendation.

Loebby, who previously gave his oath before the judges, told the hearing that he is currently employed as a lecturer of law at the University of Indonesia and Krisnadwipayana University.

The challenge to Loebby's expertise came from prosecutor Amirullah, who insisted that the professor could not testify for the defendant because he was not an expert on drugs.

"He is a criminal law expert," said Amirullah, who is a postgraduate student of Loebby's at the University of Indonesia.

But, the prosecutor's objection was overruled by Hadi.

After his argument was rejected, Amirullah then asked whether Loebby had a letter of recommendation, which declared that he was an expert in criminal law.

This time, the judge supported his argument and asked whether the professor could show a letter of recommendation either form the University of Indonesia or Krisnadwipayana University.

Loebby replied that he did not represent any institution in the hearing. "I represent myself as a criminal law expert," he said.

"I'm a member of a team of experts under the supervision of the Ministry of Law and Legislation, whose task is to prepare a draft law for the new Criminal Code," he said.

Judge Hadi, however, insisted that Loebby should show such letter of recommendation before he could testify.

"We don't want to prevent him from giving his testimony, but we all should uphold legal procedures," he said without elaborating.

In last week's hearing, prosecutor Amirullah demanded that the court ignore the dossiers since Army Second Lt. Agus Isrok, an alleged accomplice of Donny, had appeared and testified in the courtroom using his real name. The name Agus Isrok did not exist either in the dossiers or in the prosecutor's indictment.

Donny was arrested along with Agus, a member of the Army's Special Force (Kopassus), on Aug. 8 at a hotel in West Jakarta.

After the hearing, Loebby said the court should not be trapped into a formality that does not allow the prosecution to continue without the presence of documents.

"The publics know that I am an expert in criminal law. I am a professor, a doctor in criminal law," he said. (asa)