Lawyers charged with forging documents
Lawyers charged with forging documents
Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post, Tangerang
Tangerang Prosecutor's Office chief Himawan Kaskawa said on
Thursday that a team of five lawyers representing three Africans
being tried by the Tangerang District Court for possessing 5.6
kilograms of heroin had forged documents to free the defendants
from the charges they were facing.
He said that shortly after the court released the defendants,
Zimbabwean Kholison Nkomo and two Nigerians, Michael Titus Igweh
and Hillary Chimezie, the prosecutor's office sent a letter to
the Directorate General of Immigration requesting clarification
over the identity of defendant Kholison Nkomo, who denied before
the court that he was Kholison Nkomo as named in the indictment.
In a pretrial ruling on Feb. 5, the Tangerang District
Court ordered the release of the defendants on the grounds that
the prosecution charges were inaccurate.
The defendants were arrested in August 2002 for possessing
drugs at a house in the Villa Melati Mas housing estate, Serpong.
When the trial began, the defendant Kholison Nkomo claimed he
was actually Izuchwu Iberu Okolwaja from Nigeria.
A panel of judges presided over by Judge Permadi then ordered
the lawyers to present evidence backing up the defendant's claim.
A team of five lawyers comprising Henri P. Siahaan, Rinawati
Situmorang, Meliana Butar Butar, Bilher Situmorang and Peter
Tarigan then managed to prove that Okolwaja was not Nkomo by
presenting his passport and tax documents.
"In response to our query, the director general of immigration
stated that Okolwaja's passport was fake," Kaskawa said on
Thursday.
He said he could not understand why the court would so easily
accept fake documents from the defendant's lawyers and acquit the
defendants of all charges.
But as soon as the defendants were released from Tangerang
Penitentiary, the police rearrested them and brought them to city
police headquarters to face charges of document forgery.
Defendant Nkomo, who was believed to have AIDS, died in the
Police Kramat Jati Hospital on Sunday morning.