Journalists continue with plan to sue mayor

JAKARTA (JP): Ten young journalists in Surabaya have appointed vocal lawyer Trimoelja D. Soerjadi to represent them in their libel lawsuit against the city's mayor for threats made against them last month.

Trimoelja confirmed to The Jakarta Post by phone last night that he and several other Surabaya lawyers have been given the power of attorney in their court battle against Mayor Sunarto Sumoprawiro.

Other lawyers enlisted include Rahman Algadri of the East Java office of the Indonesian Bar Association (Ikadin); and Indro Sugianto, Eko Muryanto, and Munir of the local office of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute.

Trimoelja earned notoriety last year in his defense of the main suspect in the murder case of labor activist Marsinah. His defense led to the acquittal of his client, and subsequently of the other eight defendants.

"The journalists cannot accept the mayor's arrogant statements and moves," Trimoelja said, adding that he would file the lawsuit at the Surabaya district court today.

Mayor Sunarto last month threatened the journalists covering the activities of East Java Governor Basofi Sudirman because he felt that their reports showed his boss in a negative light.

Unless the journalists cleaned up their act, the mayor said he would hound them out of the city and bulldoze their homes into "green areas" for Surabaya.

The journalists contacted their lawyers on Tuesday after what was originally supposed to be a "reconciliation" dinner at the Shangri-La Hotel in Surabaya between the mayor and the journalists. The gathering quickly turned into a farce with the mayor refraining from making an outright apology.

Instead, he simply said: "Let's forgive one another."

The mayor did not stay around for the dinner and left quickly before the journalists could respond.

Unlike the young journalists, the East Java chapter of the Association of Indonesian Journalists said it has accepted the mayor's statement as an apology and that for them the matter was closed.

Present at the dinner were Governor Basofi Sudirman, commander of the regional military command Maj. Gen. Imam Utomo, chief of the East Java police Maj. Roesmanhadi, head of the East Java provincial legislative council Trimarjono, and a number of local and national journalists. (imn)