It's Tommy's trial, but judge talks about Akbar

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The trial of Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra resumed on Wednesday. But presiding judge Amiruddin Zakaria made use of the occasion to defend himself for his failure to stop the war of words between a lawyer for House of Representatives' Speaker Akbar Tandjung and a prosecutor who is handling Akbar's case.

Tommy's case has nothing to do with the ongoing graft trial of Akbar, it just happens that Amiruddin is the presiding judge in both cases.

In Akbar's hearing on Monday, lawyer John Waliry and prosecutor Fachmi called each other bangsat (bastard). But the court did not immediately put an end to the argument, which sparked criticism from legal observers who believed that the incident was a contempt of court.

"I would like to comment on the bangsat incident. Critics said that I was not firm in leading Monday's hearing... Should I have taken off my robe and stopped the conflict physically or should I have asked a guard to fire a shot?" Amiruddin said in a rising voice soon after he opened Wednesday's hearing.

Visibly upset, he asked the critics not to comment on the incident as they were not present in the hearing.

"It happened only for a few seconds and I had ordered them to stop the argument," Amiruddin said.

Monday's incident occurred after John gave a comment on the testimony of a prosecuting witness. John said it was auditio, a Latin legal term referring to hearsay. The prosecutor said it was not necessary to use the word, because the witness did not understand what it meant. John said it was his chance to speak but Fachmi said he had the right to speak because he was the one who presented the witness.

John then shouted bangsat to chief prosecutor Fachmi, who immediately returned the profanity.

They finally stopped hurling obscenities after Amiruddin said the judges would walk out of the courtroom if they did not stop.

On the sidelines of the hearing, Amiruddin said that the situation had been settled and both men had forgiven each other.

Meanwhile, Tommy's lawyers returned to court on Wednesday after they boycotted the hearing last week due to the police detention of their colleague, Elza Syarief.

Elza is accused of bribing two witnesses in the trial of Tommy, who is accused of murder and illegal possession of firearms.

The court heard the testimony from eight witnesses on Wednesday, including two security guards of Tommy's rented house in Pondok Indah, South Jakarta. The police found several firearms, explosives, ammunition and documents in the house.