Court rejects Eurico's presence at hearing

JAKARTA (JP): The South Jakarta District Court rejected once again on Friday a call for pro-Indonesia East Timor militia leader Eurico Guterres to be allowed to appear at his own pretrial hearing.

Eurico's lawyers said his testimony was needed to prove their allegation of wrongful arrest of their client by the police.

"Eurico is the only person who can clarify the circumstances surrounding his arrest. His clarification will be our evidence," Suhardi Somomoeljono, who heads the four-lawyer defense team, said.

Judge I.D.G. Putra Yadnya said that since Eurico had filed for the pretrial hearing, he could not testify before the court.

Eurico, the 27-year-old leader of the militias which lost their struggle for East Timor's integration with Indonesia last year, has been charged with incitement to commit crimes.

The charges refer to his call to his supporters in September to repossess firearms which they had surrendered to the police a few days earlier.

If found guilty of violating Article 160 of the Criminal Code, he could face a maximum punishment of six years in jail.

Eurico is also being investigated, along with a number of top military generals, in connection with the campaign of violence after pro-Indonesian supporters lost the UN-sponsored ballot to the proindependence camp in August last year.

Many top Indonesian politicians have decried his arrest, calling Eurico a "patriot" for fighting for the nation's red-and- white flag.

The militias have also been blamed for the death of three United Nations relief workers in Atambua, a refugee town near the East Timor border, in September.

Eurico was picked up by the police in a hotel in Jakarta on Oct. 4.

The circumstances of the arrest are the subject of the pretrial hearing.

Police have insisted that he was served with the arrest warrant at the time he was picked up from the hotel. His lawyers contend that he was served with the warrant at National Police Headquarters.

Failing to convince the judge to listen to Eurico's testimony, the lawyers called upon two members of his defense team to testify: Sondang Pasaribu, who is secretary to the defense team, and Sadipun, a lawyer.

Both Sondang and Sadipun gave the same version of the circumstances of the arrest: that Eurico was invited to National Police Headquarters to discuss the problems of East Timor refugees and that later he was asked to sign a paper that turned out to be his arrest warrant.

Judge Yadnya adjourned the hearing to Monday. (01)