Courts fail to act when witnesses do not show

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The law clearly stipulates that anyone who is summoned as a witness in a court session is obliged to testify. But judges do not seem to care if a witness fails to appear at a trial without a legally justifiable reason.

Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra failed to testify in the trial of his accomplice Dody Hardjito for the second time at the South Jakarta District Court last week.

The prosecutor did not give any reason for Tommy's absence, and presiding Judge Tusani Djafri did not ask. He simply told prosecutor Ismanto to summon him again for the next session on Tuesday.

Tommy is not the only witness who has failed to testify before the court. In fact, the absence of a witness is nothing new here.

In Dody's case alone, there were six witnesses who failed to testify. One witness, Hetty Siti Hertika claimed she was sick, while the other five gave no reason.

When a witness fails to appear in court, the presiding judge usually orders the prosecutor to read the witness' statements made earlier before the police or the prosecutor investigators.

According to the law, a witness is obliged to fulfill the summons, unless he or she has a legally acceptable reason, such as the witness is seriously sick, is out of the country or performing state duties.

Tommy was first scheduled to testify two weeks ago in the trial of Dody, who has been charged with helping Tommy to murder Supreme Court Justice M. Syafiuddin Kartasasmita. But at that time, prosecutor Ismanto said he could not present Tommy for security reasons. He said he had asked the police to help provide police escort from the Cipinang penitentiary, where Tommy is being detained, to the court. But the police did not respond to the request.

There was no explanation for Tommy's failure to fulfill the second summons.

Topo Santoso, a lecturer of the school of law at the University of Indonesia, and lawyer Irianto Subiakto of the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute criticized the court for allowing the witnesses to ignore the summons.

"To testify before court is an obligation, it's not a choice. There's no reason for a witness to ignore a summons unless the law says so," Topo said.

Both Topo and Irianto asserted that judges have the authority to use force to bring a defiant witness before the court.

Should a witness, who has been summoned three times, refuse to testify before a criminal hearing without any legal reason, the court could send him or her to jail.

"I've never heard of a court here using force to summon a witness, let alone punish them," Topo said.

According to Irianto, the fact that witnesses can easily ignore a summons to testify in a hearing reflects the lack of respect people have for the judiciary.