Megawati's supporters may face jail sentences

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)