Lawyers object to charges in Makassar bomb trial

Andi Hajramurni, The Jakarta Post, Makassar, South Sulawesi

Lawyers representing Muchtar Daeng Lau and Muhammad Tang, alias Itang, who were arrested in connection with the Dec. 5, 2002 bombing of a McDonald's outlet in Makassar, objected on Monday to the charges against their clients.

Itang's lawyer Abdul Malik Karim rejected the charge, arguing that the case did not fall within the Makassar District Court's jurisdiction, but the Palu District Court's.

Abdul argued that eight out of 22 witnesses were in Palu, while of the remaining 14, only one knew the defendant -- Arman, alias Galaxi, alias Gala.

Arman is currently under investigation by the South Sulawesi Police headquarters also for his alleged involvement in the bombings that killed three people, injured 15 others and destroyed a McDonald's outlet and a car dealership owned by Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Jusuf Kalla.

Meanwhile, Muchtar's lawyer Abraham Samad filed 10 objections, including the argument that the case was outside the court's jurisdiction.

Abraham also objected to the investigation and interrogation of his client, which he considered to have been conducted contrary to proper procedure. He claimed that this was evident from his client's case file.

"We found some strange things in the dossier. For example, the defendant was never accompanied by his lawyer during the interrogation, but the dossier states the opposite. There was also a difference in the date of the autopsy. It is clear that the dossier was manipulated," he said.

Muchtar's lawyer demanded the panel of judges, presided by J. Situmorang, to accept the defense's objections, throw the case out of court and free the defendant.

At another court session, the testimony of five witnesses was to be heard, but prosecutor A.M. Taufik could only present three witnesses. The witnesses were: Febi S. Rosadi, son of Gufron Rosadi, the McDonald's security officer who was killed in the blast; Tina, the mother of McDonald's customer Krisnawati, who was also killed in the blast; and Sessu, the security officer of N.V. Hadji Kalla car dealership.

The three witnesses testified that they did not know the defendant.

Sessu said that he was on duty when the bomb went off at the dealership, but that he did not see the blast as he was about 25 meters from the scene.

"I heard a loud explosion and saw smoke. I quickly ran to the location, but by the time I got there four police officers were already at the scene. There was a police post nearby," he said.

The trials of five other defendants allegedly connected to the bombing -- Haerul, Ilham Riadi, Imal Hamid, Suriadi and Anton bin Labbase -- were also on Monday. But the court session only lasted several minutes as their lawyers did not read the defense's statement and prosecutors did not present witnesses.

The trials will be adjourned until Monday next week.