Judge upholds Wiranto warrant
Judge upholds Wiranto warrant
Agence France-Presse
Dili
A judge in East Timor has rejected a legal bid by the country's
top prosecutor to review a crimes against humanity indictment
filed against Indonesian presidential candidate Gen. (ret)
Wiranto.
In a ruling received on Tuesday, Judge Phillip Rapoza rejected
the motion filed on May 11 by East Timor's prosecutor general,
Longuinhos Monteiro, the day after Rapoza issued an arrest
warrant for Wiranto, Indonesia's former army commander.
Wiranto was Indonesia's military chief when army-backed
militiamen waged a murderous campaign in 1999 against
independence supporters in East Timor, then an Indonesian
province.
The arrest warrant says Wiranto bears command responsibility
for murder and other crimes committed by Indonesian forces under
his command in East Timor.
Monteiro, an East Timorese government official who heads a
staff of UN-appointed prosecutors, filed his motion to amend the
indictment after telling reporters he regretted Rapoza's warrant.
The prosecutor also implied his subordinates had acted without
authorization.
In the motion, Monteiro asked for permission to "review the
filed indictment and file an amended indictment after removing
the defects when found," Rapoza said.
The judge, an American of Portuguese descent, said Monteiro's
motion merely alluded to a "feeling that there might be some
defects" in the filed indictment.
The Indonesian government says it does not recognize the
warrant. East Timor's president Xanana Gusmao believes good
relations with Jakarta should take priority over court action but
says he cannot interfere in legal proceedings.
Gusmao has said he could work with Wiranto if he won the July
5 election for his Golkar party, which backed the former dictator
Soeharto.
Monteiro has denied he is under political pressure to revise
the indictment.
Wiranto has dismissed the warrant as "character assassination"
and hinted that his political rivals were behind it.
The former general has said he did his best to minimize the
bloodshed in East Timor, which he blamed on the territory's
opponents and supporters of independence.
At least 1,400 people were killed before and after East
Timorese voted in August 1999 for independence. About 200,000
people were deported to western part of Timor (Indonesian
territory) and about 70 percent of all buildings in the territory
were destroyed.