Ginandjar still in cell at Attorney General's Office

Ginandjar still in cell at Attorney General's Office

JAKARTA (JP): Former mines and energy minister Ginandjar
Kartasasmita continued to remain in his cell at the Attorney
General's Office detention center on Tuesday, while his lawyers
and supporters continued the struggle for his release.

Attorney General's Office spokesman Muljohardjo said
prosecutors were still studying the court ruling on Ginandjar's
detention to find out whether the judges really ordered the
release of the suspect, who is a retired military officer.

"From April 9 until now, all that we have done is lawful,
including the detention of the suspect. Moreover, we have adhered
to the law that empowers state prosecutors to investigate and
detain Ginandjar," he said.

The South Jakarta District Court ruled on Monday that all
legal proceedings carried out by the state prosecutors before
April 9 were unlawful, since a joint investigating team which
should have included military prosecutors and military police had
not been established for the investigation into the suspect.

Late on Monday, the lawyers filed a complaint with the
National Police headquarters against the state prosecutors for
impeding Ginandjar's release as, they claimed, had been ruled by
the court.

"The Attorney General's Office abused a person's basic right
to freedom," lawyer O.C. Kaligis told the press on Tuesday.

His colleague Mohamad Assegaf also handed a written request
for their client's release to Deputy Attorney General for special
crimes Bachtiar Fachri Nasution.

Separately, National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Didi Widayadi
said on Tuesday that National Police detectives were still
examining the lawyers' complaint.

"We will question several law practitioners and experts as
witnesses in this controversial matter," he said.

He added that the police needed clarification whether
Ginandjar's detention since April 6 was lawful.

Meanwhile, Ginandjar's lawyer and best companion Muchyar Yara
insisted on staying with him in the cell on Monday night, despite
the fact that visitors were not normally allowed inside, except
during visiting hours that ended at 6 p.m.

Two other lawyers from the military legal aid division and one
bodyguard also insisted on accompanying Ginandjar inside the
detention chamber, but the military police turned them away.

Almost four hundred people organized by youth organization
Laskar Merah Putih gathered both inside and outside the Office
compound, to voice their support for Ginandjar, a suspect in a
corruption case.

The people came by bus from different parts of Jakarta -- some
even claiming to be residents of Bandung, West Java.

But several of the people said they did not really know the
reason why they had come to the Office.

"My neighbor asked me to come. I didn't have anything else to
do so I came. I don't know why we came here," a man in his 50s,
who lived in South Jakarta, said. Similar statements were also
made by a young man from Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta, and a
teenager from Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta.

Ginandjar is accused of abuse of power, in his capacity as the
minister of mines and energy, in several government contracts
between 1992 and 1995, allegedly causing some US$24.8 million in
losses to the state.

Separately, noted lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis deplored the
district court's ruling, saying that it failed to reflect the
government's efforts to reform the legal system.

"The court should not have used the old legal paradigm. It was
the past (New Order) government's paradigm to protect military
officers from investigation," he told reporters on Tuesday.

The judges, Todung said, remained trapped within the paradigm
when they could have made a legal breakthrough.

"The Attorney General's Office indeed has the authority to
conduct legal proceedings," he added, suggesting that the joint
investigating team issue another warrant for Ginandjar to end the
dispute with the lawyers.(bby/hdn/ylt)