Court to continue with JSX bombing trial

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)