Court rejects lawsuit filed against police

Court rejects lawsuit filed against police

JAKARTA (JP): South Jakarta District Court predictably
rejected lawsuits filed by 57 Megawati Soekarnoputri supporters
against Jakarta Police Chief Maj. Hamami Nata over their
detention yesterday.

The same court also threw out lawsuits filed by a further 65
people arrested in the same incident on the grounds that they had
been absent from the court on the three occasions for which
hearings in the case had been scheduled.

Fourteen judges read the ruling in the absence of the
plaintiffs and their lawyers. They said their ruling had based
solely on evidence submitted by the police.

"The plaintiffs wasted their chances to submit evidence by
failing to appear at earlier hearings," Judge K. Simanjuntak
said.

The six courtrooms prepared for the plaintiffs were unusually
quiet, with only police lawyers, judges, court secretaries and
several relatives of the plaintiffs present.

Outraged by the authorities' refusal to release the detainees
for the court hearings, 15 lawyers representing the plaintiffs
refused to sit on the ruling. They waited forlornly in the empty
foyer outside the courtroom.

In a prepared written statement, they said the ruling was
predictable and they refused to attend the hearing because they
did not believe the judges were independent.

Simanjuntak said the plaintiffs, all members of Barisan Merah
Putih (The Red and White Front), were arrested on Feb. 11. and
received arrest warrants the following day.

He said the police charged the plaintiffs under Article 5 of
Law 5/1963 on political activities, not Article 510 of the
Criminal Code on unlicensed street rallies.

The detainees claimed they had at first been charged under the
latter article, and only received arrest warrants fives days
after being detained, which is illegal under Indonesian law.

Only 27 of the arrested demonstrators were charged for
participating in an illegal street rally, Simanjuntak said. These
individuals have all been released.

The group of 57 plaintiffs are being detained at Cipinang and
Pondok Bambu penitentiaries and the group of 65 are being held at
the city police detention center.

The 122 plaintiffs were among 157 people arrested while
marching from the Attorney General's Office to the Ministry of
Manpower to demand the government lower the prices of basic
commodities.

Only a small number of relatives of the detainees visited
court yesterday. They said they knew the police would never allow
their loved ones to attend the court session.

They heckled the court clerk and judges when they began formal
proceedings in the absence of those who had brought the case to
court. The judges called out the plaintiffs' names one by one,
followed by their ruling on each case.

Petrus Selestinus, one of the plaintiffs' lawyers, said: "We
don't trust this institution because the rights of the plaintiffs
have been ignored."

In a statement, lawyers from the Defense Team of Indonesian
Democracy, who were representing the plaintiffs, said they would
bring new legal proceedings against the city police chief and the
Jakarta Prosecutor's Office for interfering with the case.

The lawyers said they would also reregister suits for the
group of 65 plaintiffs whose cases were dropped yesterday.

They criticized the court for not ordering the prosecutor's
office and city police to bring the plaintiffs to court, arguing
the plaintiffs' rights to fair legal treatment had been violated.

"What we have witnessed is the state of our judicial system.
The prosecutor's office and the police are clever at claiming
their rights while neglecting their obligations," they said.
(jun)