Court jails five over Gambir riot

Court jails five over Gambir riot

JAKARTA (JP): Five more supporters of Megawati Soekarnoputri,
the ousted leader of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI), were
jailed yesterday for their part in the Gambir riot last June.

The Central Jakarta District Court sentenced Herman Susilo,
Edy Suwito, and Rajim to seven months jail, Sutrisno for six
months, and Fauzan Nanang Prasetya for five months and 17 days.

The jail terms matched the time they had been detained so they
were freed.

Defense lawyers said they would appeal to the Jakarta High
Court.

The defendants were PDI activists involved in a rally near
Gambir railway station supporting Megawati who was being deposed
as PDI chairwoman at a government-backed congress in Medan.

The jail terms provoked uproar among the spectators, many of
whom stepped forward to hug the defendants. The defendants and
their sympathizers cried.

Megawati loyalists, who packed the court, shouted: "Where is
justice?" and "The trial was engineered."

Repeating their reaction to the sentencing of 115 Megawati
loyalists on Nov. 27, the defense lawyers said the verdicts were
unfair because the judges did not consider defense witnesses'
statements.

"They only based their verdict on the police witnesses'
testimony," defense lawyer Pantas Nainggolan said.

Petrus Salestinus, another defense lawyer on the team which
calls itself The Public Defender for Indonesian Democracy, said:
"It is a bad precedent for Indonesia's judicial system."

On Nov. 27, 115 Megawati supporters were sentenced to four
months and three days jail, equal to the time they had been
detained, for ignoring a police order while they were defending
the PDI headquarters from a take over by supporters of Soerjadi,
the officially recognized PDI chairman. (05)