Judge Asmar rebuked by upset witness

JAKARTA (JP): A witness protested to a judge in court yesterday over his unsympathetic manner of questioning her while she was testifying on behalf of a student on trial for allegedly assaulting a police officer last June.

"I really have nothing to hide in my testimony, so there is no need to grill me like that. It makes me nervous," Neli Irianti, 25, told Judge Asmar Ismail at the Central Jakarta District Court.

Judge Asmar, however, told her that it was just his way of talking and that he did not mean to scare her.

"But your eyes are staring at me. Even my parents never stare at me like you are doing when they are mad at me," Neli told the judge sternly.

The crowd in the court cheered at what they saw as something unusual. In trials witnesses are mostly treated like defendants.

Judge Asmar wore a bitter smile in response and agreed to proceed with the questioning more gently. The other two judges on the panel also smiled.

Neli testified that AB was outside the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH) office's fence pacifying fellow students when he was taken away by the police officers overseeing the student demonstration on June 4.

"I was recording the demonstration with my handy-cam," Neli, a fourth semester student at National University, told the court.

The court had earlier heard the testimony of Second Sgt. Hidayat M. Cahyo, who claimed seeing the defendant throw stones at police officers. The defendant, he said, had long hair and was standing in the LBH office grounds near the fence. AB now has short hair.

In previous trial sessions, police officers who testified against AB also said they arrested AB in the LBH office yard, after one of them, officer Armi Guntoro, suffered head injuries from a brick allegedly thrown by AB.

AB, 19, was one of more than 100 students who staged a demonstration in the LBH Jakarta office front yard on June 4, 1996.

The demonstration, held to show solidarity with the students who were killed in Ujungpandang during clashes with troops in April, started peacefully but turned violent when police moved to confiscate the students' banners.

AB, a student at the Jakarta Institute of Social and Political Science, was charged by Prosecutor Toni Sontana under Article 213 (1) of the Criminal Code, which carries a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment. (26)