Legislator faces one-year jail term

CIANJUR, West Java: Prosecutors demanded on Tuesday that a local legislator be jailed for a year on a charge of provoking people to attack members of the Cianjur legislative council (DPRD) in 2000.

Eje Suteja, 51, being tried at the local court, was also charged with publicly insulting the attacked councillors.

A mob of people pelted stones at several DPRD members on Mar. 23, 2000 when they visited the Maleber plantation in the town. Eje was allegedly seen among the attackers.

Local residents, however, praised the accused legislator as a "hero" for his efforts to clear the state land that had been acquired by private plantation company PT Tenggara.

Eje's struggle was still fruitless due to insufficient formal evidence supporting the residents' claim for the land. --Antara