Experts against review of Pakpahan acquittal

Experts against review of Pakpahan acquittal

SEMARANG: Legal experts said yesterday that prosecutors in
North Sumatra do not have the right to ask the Supreme Court to
review its decision to acquit Indonesian Prosperous Labor Union
chairman Muchtar Pakpahan.

Muladi and Ridwan Widyadarma, both law professors at
Diponegoro University, said that in criminal cases, it is the
defendant, not prosecutors, who has the right to seek a Supreme
Court review.

"Article 263 of the criminal code does not allow prosecutors
to appeal a case like Muchtar's," Muladi said.

Pakpahan, who was sentenced to four years in prison by the
Medan High Court in January 1995 in connection with the 1994
labor riots in the North Sumatra capital of Medan, was acquitted
by the Supreme Court on Oct. 1, 1995, due to a legal
technicality.

The High Court sentence was result of an appeal of the
original sentence given on Nov. 7, 1994 by the Medan District
Court, which sentenced Muchtar to three years in prison for
inciting workers to strike in Medan, Pematang Siantar and Jakarta
between April 1993 and April 1994.

Prosecutors say they hope the Supreme Court will consider
their appeal. They are appealing on the grounds that a 1970 law
states that the Court cannot reject any case brought before it.

At least one businessman was killed and dozens of shops in
Medan were vandalized in the April 1994 riots which involved
thousands of students and workers.

Ridwan dismissed the medan prosecutors' plan to appeal to the
Supreme Court as "strange and illogical" because the criminal
code describes clearly who has the right to do so.

He said prosecutors have the right to appeal to the Supreme
Court only in civil cases. (pan/har)