Lawyers object to charges in Makassar bomb trial

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.