Klender suspects to be charged with subversion
JAKARTA (JP): The three men arrested in an East Jakarta apartment last week are allegedly affiliated with the outlawed Democratic People's Party (PRD) and will be charged with subversion, police said yesterday.
City police chief Maj. Gen. Hamami Nata said the men were activists of Indonesian Students Solidarity for Democracy (SMID), which is the student wing of the banned party.
"They are activists of a banned organization and are liable to prosecution," he said. "They will be charged with subversion."
Under the Indonesian legal system, subversion is one of the most serious offenses and it carries a maximum penalty of death if the suspect is found guilty.
Police have identified the suspects only by their initials -- MY, 25, AR, 24, and NP, 28 -- after they were arrested in a military raid on the apartment in Klender on Friday.
Hamami said their involvement in the PRD was made clear by the documents that the authorities confiscated from them.
"Some of the documents contained information on the party while others had articles on communism."
The government banned the PRD last year and put its key leaders in jail on subversion charges. Government officials say that the PRD follows communism.
Hamami said a police investigation disproved the military's initial allegations that the three men were involved in a bomb- making plot.
He added that the police probe focused on their alleged involvement in the PRD.
"The investigation does not touch on issues pertaining to bombs or chemicals used in bomb-making.
"But, I can assure you that these men were involved in the Tanah Tinggi explosion (last January)," Hamami said without elaborating.
An unfinished homemade bomb exploded on Jan. 18 in a cheap apartment in a Tanah Tinggi block, Central Jakarta.
A man who rented the apartment, Agus Priyono, was arrested and has been detained at Jakarta Police Headquarters for his alleged involvement in making bombs with the help of two other men who are still at large.
Emergency law
Agus, who was believed to be a member of PRD, was charged with violating the 1951 Emergency Law No. 12 on the illegal possession, production and use of explosives.
City police spokesman Lt. Col. E. Aritonang has said that it was not clear whether Agus and the three latest suspects knew each other.
"But it's clear for us that all four of these suspects were involved in the banned party."
Aritonang said the three arrested in Klender had allegedly violated three different laws: the 1963 Law No. 11 on subversion, the 1969 Law No. 5 on political activity and Article 169 of the Criminal Code on participation in an outlawed organization.
He said the seized documents confirmed the authorities' allegation that the three suspects were involved in antigovernment or subversive activities.
"The three suspects sought to garner mass support to subvert the government," he said, adding that two of the three -- MY and Ar -- were students of universities but he refused to name which ones.
When asked whether the seized documents contained names of "sponsors", like political activists or businessmen, Aritonang smiled and said police had not gone that far with their investigation.
The military said the documents seized at Tanah Tinggi contained names of some PRD supporters, including journalists from various media and high-profile businessmen like Surya Paloh and Sofjan Wanandi. (cst)