Habibie subpoenaed in Akbar trial

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Central Jakarta District Court decided on Monday to subpoena former president B.J. Habibie to testify at the high- profile corruption trial of House of Representatives Speaker Akbar Tandjung.

Presiding Judge Amiruddin Zakaria said that Habibie and other witnesses had to give clear reasons if they failed to appear before the court.

"They should not be too arrogant by easily evading the court's summons to give testimonies ... and not to mock the court," he said.

Akbar is being tried for his alleged involvement in the misuse of Rp 40 billion (about US$4 million) belonging to the State Logistics Agency (Bulog).

State Prosecutor Fachmi summoned Habibie, who is currently living in Germany, three weeks ago in his capacity as one of the key witnesses in the graft case. Habibie, nevertheless, failed to appear, arguing that his wife, Hasri Ainun Habibie, was severely ill.

Another witness who also failed to appear was Bulog employee Ishadi Suwarta who provided no excuse. He is believed to have had an important role in the disbursement of the funds in 1999.

"I order the prosecutors to prepare new summonses for these witnesses. Should they still fail to appear before the court, I will use my authority to subpoena them," Amiruddin said before adjourning the hearing till April 29.

Akbar, along with his codefendants Dadang Sukandar and Winfried Simatupang, are charged with violating the Anticorruption Law, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in jail.

Akbar, the minister/state secretary under Habibie's Golkar government, was assigned by the former president to carry out a food-for-the-poor program. In reality, however, the aid never reached the intended recipients, as many believed that the money was used by the Golkar Party to finance its campaign in the 1999 general election. Golkar named Habibie as its presidential candidate.

During Monday's trial Fachmi asked the court to arrest one of the witnesses, Machdar, a former administration affairs staffer at the minister/state secretary's office, for giving false testimony.

"I ask the judges to detain the witness... he was not telling us the truth... he gave false testimonies...," Fachmi said in a emotional tone

Nevertheless, Judge Amiruddin refused it, arguing that he needed to further test Machdar's testimony against those of other witnesses.

Machdar initially testified to the court that he had received the receipts of the checks worth Rp 40 billion at Akbar's office from Dadang Sukandar, which were addressed to Achmad Ruskandar, Bulog's former director of finance.

But Machdar immediately changed his testimony, saying "I directly received the receipts from the minister."

Asked by the prosecutor whether Akbar had prepared the receipts, Machdar again changed his testimony, saying that "Dadang Sukandar made the receipts and I only received the copies."