Court open trials of terror suspects

Suherdjoko, The Jakarta Post, Semarang

The Semarang District Court in Central Java opened the trials on Monday of four suspects charged with terrorism. Police had earlier found explosive materials and munitions at their rented house.

The four defendants are Heru Setiawan alias Suyatno, 30, Joko Andrianto alias Luluk, 26, Machmudi Haryono alias Yusuf, 28, and Siswanto alias Antok, 26.

The trials, held separately in a sports hall in the Marina area, Semarang, proceeded peacefully amid the tight guard of around 150 police officers. The hearings started at around 10 a.m. and had all finished within two hours.

Reading out four 40-page dossiers for the defendants, prosecutors charged each with violating Law No. 15/2003 on terrorism and Law No. 12/1951 on the illegal possession of explosives and firearms.

On July 11, 2003, police raided the four suspects' rented house on Jl. Sri Rejeki Selatan VII/2 in South Kalibanteng, Semarang, and found 25 30-kilogram packages of potassium chlorate, and more than 1,000 detonators.

Also discovered in the house were 65 packages of PETN and three boxes of TNT, 11 hand fired rockets, more than 10,000 bullets, dozens of timers, one firearm and one FN pistol.

Local residents only knew the four defendants as sandal vendors and electronic-goods repairmen.

However, lawyers for the suspects, calling themselves a "Team of Semarang Bomb Defenders", denied all the terrorist charges against their clients.

The team of lawyers led by Yasri Yuda Yahya said the charges were legally flawed, arguing that prosecutors had failed to clearly and exactly explain the terrorist accusations against the defendants as required by Article 143 of the Criminal Code.

"(It should have been pointed out that there is a difference between an act to defend Muslims who are bullied by the United States and terrorism. These (acts) have different meanings. In their charges, the prosecutors did not differentiate between these things, so the charges are obscure and legally flawed," Yasri told the court.

The lawyers demanded that their clients be moved to the local prison to enable them to pray in the mosque there.

They also said the trial should be relocated to the Semarang District Court building because the current venue was too noisy.

The four panels of judges did not respond to the demands and adjourned the trials until Monday.