Defendants need more protection

Defendants need more protection

JAKARTA (JP): The rights of some defendants on trial here have
been violated because key witnesses have been absent, according
to the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation's chairman.

Chairman Bambang Widjojanto said over the weekend the Criminal
Code stipulated that defendants had the right to be represented
by defense lawyers and have key witnesses testify.

"But nowadays, the defendants' rights, such as an expert
witness in Robot Gedek's pedophile trial, were neglected without
good reasons from judges," he said.

He said this happened again and again because there was no
sanction board, which "could serve as a control when defendants'
rights were violated".

Bambang cited the process of dossier preparations at police
stations as an example of rights violations. If a defendant's
rights were violated because he or she had not been interrogated
properly or if he or she had been forced to admit a crime, the
dossier should be dropped or declared invalid.

"Moreover law enforcers, including judges, prosecutors and
police, should be punished or given sanctions if they are found
guilty of violating a defendant's rights," he said.

Bambang said the board should examine several cases.

"This means the board would evaluate the verdict of each
case."

Bambang said examinations could be lengthy and there were many
cases to deal with.

"Moreover, the examination process also requires good quality
law enforcers. They would have to be able to analyze each case
impartially," he said.

He said this would be hard to implement. (12)