Court rejects evidence of beaten suspect

JAKARTA (JP): A court rejected yesterday a lawyer's bid to present a photograph showing his client being beaten by police officers.

Judge Asmar Ismail of the Central Jakarta District Court argued that the lawyer should bring the offense to the attention of the military police instead of a district court.

"This court is only trying civil cases, while the offense you are trying to prove with the picture is a military offense," Judge Asmar told Trimedya Panjaitan, the lawyer of AB, 19, who is charged with assaulting a police officer.

AB was arrested on June 4 when a peaceful student demonstration turned into a violent clash with security officers in front of the Legal Aid Institute (LBH) office in Central Jakarta.

The demonstration was held to show solidarity with students killed in Ujungpandang during clashes with troops last April.

Trimedya told the judge he had filed a complaint with the military police and the National Commission on Human Rights not long after the June incident, but had received no response so far.

The lawyer was offering the photograph as evidence following testimony by a witness who said the defendant was grabbed by his hair and beaten by security officers when the clash broke out.

Witness Hendardi, 39, told the court he was standing near the gate of the LBH office when the clash broke out, and that he also witnessed students and security officers hurling stones at one another. However, he said he was not sure which parties started hurling the stones.

"I did not know a police officer was hurt at that moment, because the situation was frenzied," Hendardi, a former communications director of LBH, said.

"What I saw was that an officer grabbed and beat him (the defendant) with a rattan stick. He was seized because he was standing the closest to the security officers," he said.

He said some of the students, from a group of around 70, were already in the office yard, while AB was one of those left outside.

When cross-examined by the court, AB denied all the charges against him, saying that he was actually the one hurt by the police.

"They beat me up in front of the LBH office and they did it again in their office," AB told the court.

He told the court he had nothing to feel regret over, believing that he had committed no offense.

AB, a student at the Jakarta Institute of Social and Political Science, was charged by prosecutor Toni Sontana under Article 213 (1) of the Criminal Code, which carries a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment.

Judge Asmar adjourned the trial for seven days to allow the prosecutor to prepare his sentencing request. (26)