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.