Hi-tech method to put Habibie on witness stand

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.