Legal aid posts also open to foreigners

JAKARTA (JP): Foreign citizens standing trial in Jakarta prefer to ask for counsel from the legal aid post attached to each district court to seek help from private defense lawyers.

"The legal aid post is open for anyone who is in need of free legal service disregarding his or her nationality," said Ahmad Yani, a legal aid post vice coordinator.

His post, which operates at the Central Jakarta District Court, is handling at least 10 cases involving foreigners this year, he said.

Yani said recently that in general everyone could ask for legal counseling from the post. "Basically even the haves could ask for our service, but of course priorities are for the have- nots," he added.

"Those who come here consist of various nationalities, including British, American, Iranian, and Japanese," he said.

Yani added that the post does not ask foreigners, who are usually considered rich, to prove their financial situation.

Asked about how foreigners find a legal post, Yani said, "Sometimes they obtain information from fellow inmates in the detention house."

"Some of the foreigners," Yani said, "already had hired well- known lawyers but many of them were not satisfied by the counsel they received and switched to us."

Most foreign defendants were involved in the possession of narcotics, he said.

He added that foreigners in drug cases were usually sent by the court to the legal aid post for counsel.

"I'm not sure why, but foreign defendants are usually not able to contact their relatives or friends at home."

According to Yani, the post is the most accessible legal consultant in Jakarta. "That we work for free is not important, but the fact that we are at every district court is."

"This year we have helped five foreigners involved in drug cases and managed to satisfy them in relation to their verdict."

Citing an example, Yani said a Dutch defendant, whom the prosecutor had asked the court to jail for five years for narcotics possession, finally only got two years.

Yani also added that perhaps its reputation to reduce jail terms demanded for foreign defendants by the prosecutors had something to do with it. (12)