Court to continue with JSX bombing trial

JAKARTA (JP): The South Jakarta District Court decided on Tuesday to proceed with the trial of last year's bombing of the Jakarta Stock Exchange (JSX) building despite demands from the defendants to drop charges.

The panel of judges, led by Rusman Dani Achmad, said the trial of Tengku Ismuhadi Jafar, 30, and Nuryadin, 29, should continue as the indictment is already clear.

Jafar, owner of Krung Baro auto repair shop in South Jakarta, and his employee Nuryadin, alias Nadin, are among eight suspects of the bombing, which claimed 10 lives, injured 46, damaged 179 cars, and destroyed parts of the building.

They could face the death penalty if found guilty.

The defendants and their lawyers from the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI) earlier demanded the court to drop charges as they were legally flawed.

According to them, the charges were inaccurate, unclear and incomplete.

The lawyers also said that the preliminary investigation violated the Criminal Code because the defendants were not accompanied by their lawyers.

Both Jafar and Nuryadin also stated that they were tortured during the investigation and forced to sign dossiers.

The judges ordered prosecutor Endang Rachwan to continue the examination of the case.

The trial will continue next Wednesday when the prosecutor will present five of the total of 61 witnesses.

The court is also trying two other defendants in the same case: a member of the Army's Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad) Second Corp. Ibrahim Hasan and a member of the Army's Special Force (Kopassus) Chief Sgt. Irwan.

They are being tried in a session conducted jointly by civilian and military judges.

In Tuesday's session, both Ibrahim and Irwan, and their lawyers, also from PBHI, read their exceptions, which are similar to Jafar and Nuryadin's.

Lawyer Johnson Panjaitan said that prosecutors wanted to make impressions that the bombing and the grenade explosion were connected or conducted by the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

Prosecutor Soejitno, who charged Ibrahim, said in the previous session that the bombing was planned in July of last year by GAM.

According to the prosecutor, the plan had been drawn up by Jafar, a GAM member who provided the link between other members of the group in Aceh, Jakarta and abroad.

After the hearing, Ibrahim, 31, was brought before another panel of judges in a separate, but related case, the grenade explosion in the parking lot of the Malaysian Embassy on Jl. HR Rasuna Said, South Jakarta, in August last year.

Ibrahim, was tried along with Iswadi H. Jamil, 30, an entrepreneur.

Prosecutor Sulaeman Hadjarati had said earlier that Ibrahim and Iswadi obtained the two grenades, which cost Rp 2 million, in Bandung, West Java, from another Kopassus soldier, who was still at large.

Their lawyer asked the court on Tuesday to drop the charges, which were "inaccurate" and "not clear."

Ibrahim and Iswadi are among eight persons suspected of being involved in the incident -- five of them are still at large.

Later on Tuesday, another suspect, Iwan Setiawan was tried for the first time. (hdn)