House sepaker's trial to start on March 25, court announces

House sepaker's trial to start on March 25, court announces

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

In contrast to the usual snail's pace of the law, the Central
Jakarta District Court announced on Monday that it would begin
the trial of House Speaker Akbar Tandjung on March 25 for
allegedly misusing Rp 40 billion (US$4 million) in State
Logistics Agency (Bulog) funds.

Akbar will be tried along with two other defendants, Winfried
Simatupang, an aid contractor, and Dadang Sukandar, chairman of
the Raudlatul Jannah Foundation, court spokesman Andi Samsan
Nganro said.

"They will be tried together as the charges are related to
each other," he said.

The court set up a panel of judges, consisting of Judge Andi
and I Ketut Gede and Presiding Judge Amiruddin Zakaria, only a
couple of hours after the Jakarta Prosecutors' Office handed over
the case files on Thursday.

The Jakarta Prosecutors' Office submitted the files to the
court three hours after it received them from the Attorney
General's Office. Usually, it takes between three days and a week
before files on a defendant are submitted to the court.

In most cases, the court president then selects a panel of
judges to hear the case between three days and one week after the
court has received the files. The panel of judges then sets a
date for the trial, and usually it takes about a week for them to
prepare themselves before the first hearing.

Many have alleged that the process in Akbar's case has been
accelerated for political reasons in an attempt to show the
public that law enforcers are really serious in handling the
case, so that the House of Representatives does not need to
establish a special investigative committee.

However, court president Subardi rejected the allegation.

"There's no politics involved in this case. This is about
corruption," he said without elaborating.

The panel of judges in the Akbar case will also hear the
murder charges against the youngest son of former president
Soeharto, Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, on Wednesday.

"It's not a big deal as the schedules for both cases are
different," said Andi, who has also been appointed as an ad hoc
human rights tribunal judge.

The court has ordered the prosecutors to continue the
detention of the defendants as the judges have yet to receive any
request for bail from the defendants' lawyers.

One of Akbar's lawyers, Ruhut Sitompul, said they were still
discussing the issue.

Akbar claimed that he gave the Bulog funds to Dadang for
humanitarian aid purposes. Dadang in turn claims he handed the
funds over to Winfried. Winfried had earlier claimed he had spent
the money on buying food aid for the poor. But later, he changed
his tune, saying that he had not spent the money at all. He then
returned it to prosecutors.

The Rp 40 billion is believed by many to have been channeled
to the Golkar Party to finance its 1999 election campaign. Golkar
executive Syamsul Muarif, who is also the state minister for
communications and information, said the funds had been shared
with all of the 48 parties contesting the election, except for
the People's Democratic Party.

Akbar's case is part of a Rp 54.6 billion corruption case
involving former Bulog chief Rahardi Ramelan as the prime
suspect. Rahardi will go on trial on Tuesday in the South Jakarta
District Court.