Megawati's supporters may face jail sentences

JAKARTA (JP): The state prosecutors asked the Central Jakarta District Court yesterday to sentence 44 of the 49 defendants accused of taking part in the July 27 riot to four months and two weeks in jail.

The prosecutors asked the court to sentence another defendant to two months jail for the same reason but asked that all charges against four other defendants be dropped because there was insufficient evidence for a conviction.

The prosecutors asked that Abdulrachman, 62, be jailed for only two months because he was old.

The prosecutors said Dadang, Soekartonu Widjoyo (a veterinarian), Daim Ambas and Raya M. Tampubolon should have all charges against them dropped.

All the defendants are supporters of Megawati Soekarnoputri, the ousted leader of the Indonesian Democratic Party. They were tried in four sessions.

The defendants were represented by a team of lawyers, which called itself "the defender of Indonesian democracy," led by R.O. Tambunan.

The prosecutors said the 44 who should be jailed for four months and two weeks damaged buildings and harmed other people.

They were not guilty of ignoring a police order to disperse, the prosecutors said.

"However, they never expressed regret about their offenses, a factor which makes their guilt more serious," the prosecutors said.

The four defendants who the prosecutors wanted to drop all charges against were: a veterinarian who was at the riot scene to sell T-shirts bearing Megawati's picture, a man using a public telephone and mistakenly nabbed by a police intelligence officer, a man arrested for telling security officers that a man in a police truck was his brother, and the fourth was an electrician who worked at the PDI headquarters.

The riot broke out when supporters of Soerjadi, the officially-backed PDI chairman, seized the party headquarters from Megawati's loyalists.

According to the National Commission of Human Rights five people were killed, 149 injured and 23 were still missing from the riot. Several buildings were heavily damaged.

Megawati was toppled by Soerjadi at a government-backed congress in Medan, North Sumatra, in June. Megawati, who is the eldest daughter of the late president Sukarno, called her dismissal unlawful.

The other 75 supporters of the PDI chairwoman who have been charged are being heard in other sessions. (08/16)