Defendant abducted by fellow students

Defendant abducted by fellow students

JAKARTA: About 100 university students attending the trial of
Marsahala Napitupulu "abducted" him from East Jakarta District
Court after the trial on Monday.

He had been charged with "unpleasant conduct" after he
allegedly set fire to Golkar Party flags during the legislative
election campaign in March at his Mpu Tantular University campus
in East Jakarta.

Witnesses said that 15 police officers guarding the court did
nothing when they saw the students carry out the defendant to the
street where three rented public minibuses awaited them.

"The police were merely controlling the crowd so that it did
not disrupt the traffic," Sutrisno, a parking attendant at the
court, said.

The students later held a media conference, denying they had
abducted Napitupulu because the defendant had not received an
arrest warrant from the court. He was moved simply from the
prosecutor's office detention center to the court detention
center.

"Napitupulu is not under court detention, so we are not
violating any regulation," said a student, Ray Christian.

He claimed Napitupulu was safe in their hands. -- JP