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)