District court turns down lawsuit against Bimantoro

District court turns down lawsuit against Bimantoro

JAKARTA (JP): The South Jakarta District Court has dismissed
lawsuits filed by eight middle-ranking police officers against
National Police chief Gen. Surojo Bimantoro, saying that the case
was the jurisdiction of the military court.

Judges of the eight middle-ranking officers' pretrial hearings
agreed on Monday that although the National Police had been
separated from the military forces, a regulation had yet to be
formulated to try police personnel under civilian law.

The officers are Sr.Comr. Parlindungan Sinaga, Sr. Comr.
Salikin Munitz, Sr. Comr. Banjarnahor, Sr. Comr. Nurdin Umar, Sr.
Comr. Bambang Widodo, Sr. Comr. Badaruzzaman Haidir, Sr. Comr.
Alfons Leomau and Sr. Comr. Herman Kotto.

They have been accused of staging a revolt against Bimantoro
during a gathering in a cafe in Central Jakarta last July after
Bimantoro rejected his dismissal by then president Abdurrahman
Wahid.

The court's decision raised further questions of the existence
of People's Consultative Assembly Decree No. VII/MPR/2000 that
separated the police from the military, which as a consequence
means that the police are no longer under military rule.

Coordinator of the police officers' team of lawyers, Irianto
Subiakto, told journalists that they would appeal to the Supreme
Court and ask it to rule on what legal basis should be applied to
the police.

"We will ask the Supreme Court to interpret the decree and
also the Assembly, which formulated the decree, to clarify under
which jurisdiction the police come under and which regulations
should be used in the installment or dismissal of police
members," he said.

Judge I Gde Putra Jadnya, who presided at the pretrial hearing
of Alfons Leomau and Herman Kotto, viewed that the police still
fell under prevailing laws which regulate that any violations by
the police should be heard before a military court.

Jadnya pointed out that without a new law on the National
Police as a follow up to the Assembly decree, prevailing Law No.
28/1997 on the National Police and Law No. 31/1997 on military
tribunals still applied to police members. (bby/tso)