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