Courth declares activists guilty of illegal rally
JAKARTA (JP): A judge at the Central Jakarta District Court declared on Tuesday that Wardah Hafidz and four other activists of the Urban Poor Consortium (UPC) were guilty for their failure to notify the police before organizing a rally the day before.
Judge I Gde Sumitra said the five defendants were guilty for not notifying the police of their intention to lead a street rally of some 100 becak (pedicab) drivers in front of the Presidential Palace on Jl. Medan Merdeka Utara in Central Jakarta on Monday.
"Wardah Hafidz, Afrizal Malna, Subroto Ahmad Muswanto, Edi Saidi, and Yan Adiputra are guilty of violating articles 510 and 511 of the Criminal Code and article 10 of the 1998 Law No. 9 on Demonstration," Sumitra said.
"The defendants are fined Rp 2,250 (30 U.S. cents) and are obliged to pay a trial fee of Rp 500 each," he told the hearing in the absence of the defendants, who earlier left the courtroom in protest of the ongoing prosecution.
More than 200 becak drivers showed up at Tuesday's hearing in support to the defendants.
At the hearing, the defendants rejected all the charges, denying the legality of the 1998 law.
"The law is a product of a regime that didn't appreciate its residents' rights to deliver their opinion," said Wardah.
She renewed her earlier statements that it was the city administration which violated its own City Bylaw No. 11/1998 on Public Order by inviting becak drivers in 1998.
The defendants were arrested on Monday evening when they refused to disperse as ordered by the police.
The UPC's struggle for the becak to resume operation in the city received support from the National Awakening Party (PKB).
A. Effendy Choirie, a PKB legislator for the House of Representatives' Commission I on Defense, Foreign and Political affairs, Andi Naimi Fuaidi, a PKB legislator for the House's Commission III on Agriculture and Food Affairs and Rustin Ilyas of PKB's central board said President Abdurrahman Wahid had the same commitment and orientation with UPC's struggle.
"The President has allowed the becak to operate in residential areas," they said in a written statement, copies of which were made available to the press on Tuesday.
Earlier in the morning, Wardah told The Jakarta Post the reason she wanted to meet with President Abdurrahman Wahid, was to ask him to live up to his statement of Jan. 23, in a TV interview with host Jaya Suprana, when he said he did not mind if pedicabs operated in housing complexes.
"I wanted to clarify that matter with him. On Feb. 22, a raid of pedicabs was conducted in the capital, where pedicabs were even confiscated from the homes of the drivers. So, why did the President make a statement like that on TV?"
She said that while protesting outside the palace, some 200 police officers had surrounded them at about 8:30 p.m. on Monday.
"Via a megaphone, an officer announced that according to a Law, we were not supposed to be protesting there. He did not mention which law," Wardah told the Post.
"The police officers gave us 15 minutes to clear the area. I asked the pedicab drivers if they wanted to leave, or stay. They said stay, so we stayed."
"At 8:45 p.m., the officers assisted 13 of us, including LBH lawyer Daniel Panjaitan and myself, to get onto a police truck."
"I reached Polda (city police headquarters) at about 9 p.m. I was brought to the City Police Intelligence office, where an intelligence officer questioned me. I told him, I wouldn't speak, since I don't know why I was brought to Polda in the first place," she said.
"So, they made me and my friends wait in the lobby of the city police detectives, from about 11 p.m. When it reached 2:30 a.m., I went to that office (points at office of Lt. Col. Syahrul Mamma, chief of detectives for general crime) and told the officer that I was tired, I wanted to go home and sleep, and that I would come back fresh in the morning for interrogations," she said.
"An officer by the name of Bambang said that if I did not want to be interrogated now, I might as well sleep here. I really, never expected them to be so difficult." (nvn/ylt)