Court exonerates rector of sexual harassment
JAKARTA (JP): The South Jakarta District Court has exonerated Ali Moechtar Hoetasoehoet, the rector of a private education institution, from all charges of sexual harassment, due to inadequate evidence.
"The court finds the defendant not guilty and has decided to acquit him of all the charges," presiding judge Doris A. Taulo said yesterday.
The presiding judge said that based on principles set forth in the Criminal Code Procedures, a judge cannot hand down a verdict without hearing the testimony of at least two different witnesses.
"In this case, the panel of judges agrees that, based on evidence, not a single person witnessed any of the alleged actions," Doris said.
The judge added that the other factor which influenced the verdict was the inconsistency of the testimony given by the 16 witnesses presented by the prosecutor. "They all gave conflicting testimonies."
During the trial, prosecutor Uri Hasan Basri requested that the judge find Hoetasoehoet guilty and sentence him to one year in jail.
Hoetasoehoet is rector of the Institute of Social and Mass Communication (IISIP) in Lenteng Agung, South Jakarta. He helped established the institute in 1953.
He was arraigned in November 1993 when two female staffers, Dyah Bintarini, one of the institute's lecturers, and Hanny Ankie Peggy Mokoginta, the institute's chief librarian, reported to the police that they had been sexually harassed by Hutasoehoet.
The sexual harassment allegedly occurred during the period of March 1987 to July 1991. Dyah resigned from the institute on April 30, 1992.
The rector was also charged with similar behavior towards Hanny, who was reportedly accosted sexually in her rented room and in various rooms at the institute 15 times from May 1984 to June 1991.
Hoetasoehoet's lawyer, Petrus Bala Pattyona of the Maruli Simorangkir law firm, said that the charges brought forth in the trial were orchestrated by outside parties, including a nationally known media magnate, to enable them to take over the institute.
Responding to Judge Doris' verdict, the prosecutor Uri said that he will use the 14 days allocated him under the law to decide whether or not he will file an appeal to the Supreme Court.
He said that he will study the verdict thoroughly in efforts to find a stronger legal argument to back up the charges.
Meanwhile, lawyer Nursyahbani Katjasungkana, who was representing Dyah and Hanny before the court sessions started, said that the verdict reflected the male chauvinism rampant in the existing legal system.
Nursyahbani, who also heads a non-governmental organization called Women's Solidarity for Human Rights, said that the Supreme Court should not use the existing legal principle of evidence when re-examining the case.
"Perhaps such a principle is suitable for other crimes, but for this case we should use another system of legal verification," she said. (03)