Mayor not required to testify

Mayor not required to testify

JAKARTA: The prosecutor in a defamation suit against Tempo
magazine's chief editor and journalists deemed that serving
Central Jakarta mayor Hosea Petra Lumbun was not required to
testify before the court as a witness.

"We already have his statements (from police dossiers),"
Bastian Hutabarat told Tempo News Room on Friday.

The mayor, who is considered a key witness in the case, has
failed to show up in court on three previous occasions. Tempo
lawyer Trimoelja D. Soerjadi has called on the judicial panel to
subpoena Hosea.

The case revolves around an article entitled Ada Tomy di
Tenabang? (Is Tomy involved in Tanah Abang?), which was carried
in the weekly's March 3, 2003, edition, that apparently
insinuated that businessman Tomy Winata could have been behind
the fire that destroyed Tanah Abang textile market on February,
as it alleged that he had earlier proposed to the Central Jakarta
municipality for the project to renovate the market.

In the article, Hosea spoke in defense of Tomy -- who then
brought the defamation suit -- over the accusations.

"I'm always ready (to appear in court as a witness)," Hosea
said on Friday. "(But) I've been really busy recently due to
election preparations."

The next hearing at the Central Jakarta District Court will be
on Monday. -- JP