Habibie subpoenaed in Akbar trial

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."