Court fails to present local singers in phone fraud trial

JAKARTA (JP): Five local singers have failed to testify at the trial of three men charged with selling counterfeited cellular phones at the West Jakarta District Court.

Public prosecutor Asri Aziz told the panel judges on Wednesday that his office had sent official letters to Dedy Dhukun, Yacob Kembar, Tommy J. Pisa, Baliyanto and Dicky summoning them to court as witnesses. "They received the letters. I don't know why they failed to show up today," Aziz said.

The artists were listed as witnesses, because they bought fake cellular phones from the defendants, the prosecutor said.

The trial went on in the absence of the artists. The first witness was Ahmad Falah, an operational staff member of the hand phone operator PT Komselindo, a joint venture company between state-owned PT Telkom and PT Elektrindo (Bimantara group).

Falah said the prices of hand phones, mostly Motorolla and NEC models, ranged from Rp 2.5 million (US$ 1,085 ) to Rp 3 million each.

Aziz said the defendants, Bennie Keok Hee, a Singaporean, locals Suratmin Burhan alias Bun Hok, Reza Agustinus alias Aking counterfeited 510 hand phones by stealing the PIN (private identification number) and the electronic serial numbers (ESN) from the distributor, PT Teknikotama Globalindo between August 1994 and December last year.

He said the suspects used an electrical device to read the ESN being used by the original cellular phone, then copied the numbers into the counterfeit hand phones.

Users of duplicated hand phones can only send calls, but cannot not receive them, he added. The users thus never pay for the calls, which are charged to the owners of the original cellular phones.

Many hand phone owners have complained to PT Telkom that their bills recorded inexplicably high use, the witness said.

Azis said two other suspects, Awi and Sujat Sidodo alias Kenny are still at large.

He added that the suspects used a room at Hotel Princen on Jl. Mangga Besar, West Jakarta, as their workshop for the counterfeiting.

Azis said the suspects caused losses of Rp 3.03 billion in lost state funds.

Bennie, through an interpreter, denied all the charges, saying that the testimony given by Aziz was not based on fact.

The suspects have been in police custody since Nov. 28 last year.

The government has appointed four companies -- Telkomsel, Satelindo, Ratelindo and Komselindo -- to operate radio cellular communication systems and provide hand phones with official serial numbers for costumers. (04)