Hi-tech method to put Habibie on witness stand

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Former president B.J. Habibie -- who currently lives in Germany -- is expected to testify via videoconference in the trial of former chief of the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) Rahardi Ramelan at the Central Jakarta District Court later this month.

The district court chief Lalu Mariyun, who is presiding over the trial, has asked for the approval of the Supreme Court and the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights about the plan to summon Habibie through a videoconference link this month.

Lalu said that both of them had indicated that they would agree. "We are now waiting for their official approval," he said on Friday.

On Thursday, Habibie's lawyers Muladi, who was the Minister of Justice under Habibie's term, O.C. Kaligis and Yan Djuanda Saputra, met Lalu to inform him that Habibie was ready to take the witness stand via a videoconference in Rahardi's hearing.

"Our client welcomes the idea and we support him," Yan told The Jakarta Post Saturday.

The team of lawyers will go to Hamburg, Germany to accompany their client during the unique testimony, which will be done with assistance from SCTV.

Habibie, who ignored the court's summon three times, currently lives in Hamburg, Germany, and takes care of his ailing wife.

The former president is a key witness against Rahardi, who is accused of misusing Rp 62.9 billion (about US$7.27 million) of Bulog's Non-Budgetary Funds in 1999.

As much as Rp 40 billion allegedly went to Akbar Tandjung, then the state secretary/minister for what the accused claim was a charity project, upon orders from Habibie. Many believe that the money was used to finance the Golkar party campaign in the 1999 election.

Akbar, who is now House Speaker and head of the Golkar Party, is being tried at the Central Jakarta District Court in a similar case. In that trial, the prosecutors presented Habibie's dossiers before the court as evidence.

Judge Lalu insisted upon hearing Habibie's testimony live because the public needed to observe the case thoroughly. Rahardi's lawyer, Trimoelja D. Soerjadi, had earlier supported the court because Habibie's testimony could reveal the truth of the case.

However, the prosecutors did not seem to be enthusiastic to carry out the idea. Chief prosecutor Kemas Yahya Rahman said that prosecutors would go to Hamburg only if the government paid for their trip. Otherwise, they would just ask officials of the Indonesian embassy in Germany to watch over the process in Hamburg.

Kemas claimed that his office had no money for the teleconferencing, which was doubted by Lalu as the Attorney General's Office in December sent two prosecutors to meet Habibie in Hamburg.

He also ignored the court's suggestion to contact the University of Indonesia, which had earlier stated their willingness to lend a hand.

SCTV then took an active step by approaching the court and offered to assist with the videoconference. The court had approved the offer after SCTV agreed not to air commercials during the program.

Kemas had repeatedly said that prosecutors preferred to read out Habibie's dossiers as the Criminal Code Procedure does not rule upon videoconference testimony.