Makassar bomb trial continues despite defendants' protest

Makassar bomb trial continues despite defendants' protest

Andi Hajramurni, The Jakarta Post, Makassar, South Sulawesi

Judges overruled an objection filed by the defendants' lawyers
for what they said were irregularities in the prosecutors'
charges during the trial on Monday of two defendants accused of
bombing a McDonald's outlet in the South Sulawesi capital of
Makassar last year.

Presiding judge Jassola Situmorang said the trial of Muchtar
Daeng Lau and Muhammad Tang, alias Itang, should continue.

Abraham Samad, who led Muchtar's defense team, pointed to a
number of irregularities in the case files prosecutors had
prepared.

"For example, the evidence that prosecutors are presenting
does not match with those contained in their files," Abraham said
during the trial held at Makassar District Court.

He said the defendant was never accompanied by his lawyer
during his interrogation, however, the files state the opposite.

Lawyer Abdul Malik Karim, representing Itang, insisted that
the jurisdiction of the case was under the Palu District Court
instead of the Makassar District Court.

He said that Article 84 of the Criminal Code stipulated that a
case should be tried in the place where most of the witnesses
come from.

"To accommodate this requirement, prosecutors have added a
number of witnesses from Makassar, even though only one of the 14
witnesses (from Makassar) knows the defendant," lawyer Abdul
explained.

Prosecutors listed 22 witnesses, eight of whom are from Palu
in Central Sulawesi.

The only witness with knowledge of Itang is Arman, who is also
a suspect in the bombing case.

The trial of Itang and Muchtar will resume on Monday next
week.

Prosecutors have charged Itang with helping Agung Abdul Hamid,
a key suspect in the bombing, escape. The blast on Dec. 5 last
year at the fast food restaurant killed three people and wounded
11 others. It also ripped apart a car dealership owned by
Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Jusuf Kalla.

So far 12 suspects are on trial at Makassar District Court in
connection with the bombing. Police have named a total of 21
suspects in this case, although one has died. Three other
suspects, Dahlan, Mirjal alias Gozi and Hizbullah Rasyid are
still at large.

Police have said that some of the suspects had ties to the
Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) terrorist organization, which was allegedly
behind the bombing that killed over 200 people in Bali in October
last year.