Lawyer terrorized by client's husband

Lawyer terrorized by client's husband

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A lawyer who is handling the divorce case of a battered women
has complained about being terrorized by the angry husband, the
police and the military.

Asnifriyanti Damanik, the director of the Legal Aid Institute
of the Indonesian Women's Association for Justice, told The
Jakarta Post on Tuesday that last week six men had come to her
office and when they discovered she and her client were not in
had demanded details of their whereabouts.

The pair and a relative of the client were being driven in a
taxi from the South Jakarta District Court to her nearby office
in Kramatjati, East Jakarta, when the men had found them.

Asnifriyanti said the trio, including the client, Ade, 36, had
then driven towards Ade's relatives but when the men continued
following had decided to go to the Ciracas police station in East
Jakarta for protection.

The men - including Ade's husband, Sudaryana - had immediately
besieged the three women inside the police station, Asnifriyanti
said.

Sudaryana told the police that Ade had stolen his jewelry, and
told them that he had reported the theft to the Kebayoran Lama
police.

Despite Asnifriyanti's protests, the Ciracas police believed
that Ade was a thief and called the Kebayoran Lama police to come
and collect her.

While they were waiting, a group of six uniformed military
personnel arrived at the request of Sudaryana, who apparently
knew them well, to "face" Asnifriyanti.

Later in the evening, the Kebayoran Lama police came to take
Ade to its office to interrogate her.

"We really feel concerned with this terrorism against the
victim as well as the lawyer," Asnifriyanti said, criticizing the
police and the military for their parts in the scheme.

Asnifriyanti said Ade, who had been married to Sudaryana for
10 years, left home on Sept. 27 last year as she had enough of
being beaten by her husband.

She sought help from the institute and was given refuge in its
shelter house.

Her only daughter later followed her. Before she came to see
her mother, she took gold jewelry weighing less than 10 grams
from the house which she gave to her mother.

Asnifriyanti said Ade could not be charged with stealing from
her own house because as a wife she still had the right to be in
her own home.