Endin's fate to be decided Thursday

JAKARTA: A court is scheduled to hand down on Thursday its verdict on Endin Wahyudin, a defendant in a defamation case against two Supreme Court justices.

Endin is charged with libel over his report to a now-defunct anticorruption team that he had given justice Supraptini Sutarto and justice Marnis Kahar Rp 50 million each, and former justice Yahya Harahap Rp 96 million. The three of them were handling a land dispute case that involved Endin as a middleman.

Endin was then reported to the police by the two justices.

On Wednesday, Endin began crying when reading the section of his plea that stated his mother had died on Sept. 18, or a week after she heard the sentence request for Endin through a private television station here.

The prosecutor had asked the court to sentence him to a three- month suspended jail term with a six-month probation period.

"I understand that human death is in the hands of God. However, I also understand the feeling of a mother whose son, who becomes a defendant, might be facing a three-month jail term," he said, while wiping his tears away.--JP