Court ready for hi-tech hearing

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

For the first time in Indonesia, a court hearing will take place via videoconference. This unusual event will happen at the South Jakarta District Court on Tuesday afternoon, when former president B.J. Habibie is scheduled to testify in the corruption trial of former State Logistics Agency (Bulog) chief Rahardi Ramelan.

On Monday, several workers from SCTV, which is providing the technical expertise, installed the equipment needed for the videoconference in the Garuda courtroom.

The modest courtroom was transformed by the presence of a large screen, several televisions, lights and other instruments.

Former president B.J. Habibie is scheduled to testify against Rahardi, who is accused of misusing Rp 62.9 billion (about US$7.27 million) of Bulog funds in 1999.

A total of Rp 40 billion of the funds allegedly went to Akbar Tandjung, then the state secretary/minister, for a charitable project ordered by Habibie, who was president at the time.

Akbar, now the speaker of the House of Representatives and the head of the powerful Golkar Party, is being tried separately.

Habibie, who lives in Hamburg, Germany, failed to respond to three court summons to testify because he could not leave his ailing wife, according to his lawyers here.

And prosecutors were unable to travel to Hamburg to take Habibie's testimony because of a lack of funds, chief prosecutor Kemas Yahya Rahman said.

Habibie will give his testimony from the Indonesian Embassy in Germany.

Presiding judge Lalu Mariyun had insisted that the court hear Habibie's testimony live, saying the public needed to be able to observe every aspect of this case.

Although the Criminal Code Procedures contain no provisions for videoconferencing at trials, the South Jakarta District Court decided to go forward with it after receiving the approval of the Supreme Court and the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights.