George immune from extradition: Oetojo
George immune from extradition: Oetojo
JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Justice Oetojo Oesman says academic
and human rights activist George Aditjondro cannot be extradited
from Australia, despite a request from the Indonesian government.
Speaking to reporters after signing a treaty for mutual
assistance in criminal matters between the Indonesian justice
minister and Australian Attorney General Michael Lavarch, Oetojo
said yesterday that political crimes are ruled out as a basis for
extradition in the Indonesia-Australia extradition treaty.
"George Aditjondro, who is wanted by the Indonesian government
on political charges, cannot be extradited from Australia,"
Oetojo said.
George, who is still listed as a staff lecturer at Satya
Wacana Christian University in Salatiga, Central Java, earned
official wrath for publishing a study on the political situation
in East Timor which the authorities said contained inaccuracies.
He is also wanted by Yogyakarta police on charges of
discrediting the Indonesian government during a seminar at the
Indonesian Islamic University in August 1994.
George, 49, who is currently lecturing in Asian studies at
Perth's Murdoch University, has expressed a willingness to become
a permanent resident of Australia.
George is one of the three people who Chief of General Affairs
of the Armed Forces Lt. Gen. Soeyono has said is an activist of
the communist "formless organizations" that have been blamed for
launching provocative actions against the government.
The other two are author Pramoedya Ananta Toer and labor
leader Muchtar Pakpahan.
George has denied being a communist.
Lavarch said the treaty will allow both countries to request
and receive assistance on a range of important criminal law
enforcement processes.
"The treaty will include the taking of evidence, the searching
and seizing of documents and material, the arrangements for
witnesses to give evidence or assist in investigations, service
of documents and the restraint, forfeiture and confiscation of
the proceeds of crime," Lavarch said.
He said that the treaty will build on the existing extradition
relationship between Jakarta and Canberra.
The extradition treaty, which rules out extradition for
political criminals, was signed on April 22, 1992.
Lavarch said Indonesia was the second country in Southeast
Asian with which Australia has established a formal mutual
assistance relationship. "The first was with the Philippines in
1993," he said.
"I am confident that this new arrangement will prove very
useful for both countries' domestic law enforcement, as well as
in cases of transnational crime in the region," he said.
Oetojo said there are 35 types of crime were covered in the
mutual assistance treaty, but did not say what they were.(imn)