Military court opens Trisakti trial

JAKARTA (JP): The first court-martial session of the Trisakti shooting incident was held at the Military Court in East Jakarta yesterday, as hundreds of students, police officers and the media teamed the courtroom to watch the proceedings.

The trial brought two of the 18 suspects -- all of whom are members of the Jakarta Police force -- to the court wearing their respective uniforms and flanked by a strong team of leading lawyers.

The hearing for the two officers -- company commander First Lt. Agus Tri Heryanto, 29, and platoon leader Second Lt. Pariyo, 38, both from the City Police mobile brigade unit -- lasted for almost three hours after it opened at 8:40 a.m.

Prosecutors Col. Sardji Purnomo and Capt. Bambang Ari Wibowo, who read the indictments by turns, charged the two for undisciplined acts under Article 103 of the Military Penal Court which carries a maximum sentence of two years and four months in prison.

Open fire

According to the military prosecutors, the two officers allowed their subordinates to open fire without authorization during the May 12 Trisakti student protest that ended with the deaths of four students.

"In fact, they did not do anything to stop either the shootings or the beatings of the students in the Trisakti incident," Sardji said while reading the indictments.

"The suspects' conduct eventually led to chaos, property destruction, injuries and the death of four Trisakti students," he told the court.

The prosecutors also said the suspects were armed with "blanks, rubber bullets and tear gas".

"Therefore, we demand that the two defendants remain in custody during which we ask to bring in 10 witnesses to testify in this trial," Sardji said.

He identified the 10 witnesses as West Jakarta Police Chief Lt. Col. Timur Pradopo, Second Sgt. Cecep Dadang S., Second Sgt. Sunarto, private Arwan Saleh Siregar, Capt. Arman Dahlan, Second Lt. Mahmud Sulaiman, head of Trisakti campus authority Ari Gunarsa, neighborhood civilian security officer Samsudin, head of Trisakti security Yonas Pattikaihatu and Trisakti student Julianto Hendro Cahyono, an economics major who is also Trisakti's student senate chairman.

No evidence was presented during yesterday's hearing.

National Military Police Corps Commander Maj. Gen. Syamsu Djalal said Tuesday that all of the 18 suspects would be charged under Article 170 of the Criminal Code for violent assault, which carries a maximum sentence of 12 years in prison.

At times during the hearing, most of the watching police officers voiced their support for their fellow members on trial.

"Yeah ... be brave, man!" cried some of them, forcing presiding judge Col. Sudji Suradi to bang his gavel to silence the court.

The prosecutors' charges were at least twice objected to by the defense team led by noted Indonesian attorney Adnan Buyung Nasution. He was accompanied by eight senior lawyers: O.C. Kaligis, Hotman Paris Hutapea, Moh. Assegaff, Rudhy A. Lontoh, Denny Kailimang, Hotma Sitompul, Otto Hasibuan and Purwaning Yanuar.

The team also consists of six senior officials from the National Police Legal Affairs Department.

Differences

The defense questioned significant differences of words found in the indictments read by the prosecutors compared to those in the defense's hands.

"You also said in the indictment that the police were armed only with rubber bullets, tear gas and blanks. Yet, the results of Jakarta Military Police investigation showed that the four Tisakti students died from live ammunition.

"These defendants obviously were not the ones who shot them, and therefore, there is no correlation between their action and the death of the students," Adnan said.

O.C. Kaligis took the stand and backed up Adnan's opinion, saying that the prosecutors were trying to mislead the public, stoke student outrage and lead the innocent officers to a "fatal indictment".

The hearing was closed with a defense plea to dismiss all charges.

"We also want the court to release defendant Agus from detainment because his wife is due to give birth," Buyung said. The appeal was quickly rejected by the judges.

"The defendant will remain in prison and we will adjourn until the next session on Tuesday at 9 a.m. sharp," presiding judge Sudji said.

Outside, an angry group of Trisakti students yelled their disappointment at the defense team, particularly Buyung whom they have considered a strong supporter of the student movement.

"Why are you defending killers? You said you'd support the student fight for reform all the way! You're a traitor," said Hendro Cahyono of Trisakti University.

Buyung tried to calm the angry students and said: "You want all this to be revealed completely?"

"This trial is one way to reach that goal. You can't just blame and drag down innocent people, ruining their lives. For what?"

Speaking with reporters later, Buyung said he chose to defend the suspects because he saw discriminative action aimed at the police. (edt)