Military court to go ahead with Agus case

JAKARTA (JP): Judges at the Jakarta Military Court ruled on Thursday that the court would continue the trial of defendant Army Second Lt. Agus Isrok on the grounds of a legal technicality.

They rejected the demand aired by the defendant's lawyers in the previous hearing that Agus, a member of the Army's Special Force (Kopassus), be tried in a civilian court, instead of the military one.

"In an alleged wrongdoing committed together by a civilian and a military officer, each defendant will be separately prosecuted at the civilian court and the military court respectively," Presiding judge Col. Sarman Mulyana told a pretrial hearing at the Jakarta Military Court in Pondok Kopi, East Jakarta.

He quoted Article 143 of the 1999 Law on the Amended 1970 Law on the Principles of Judicial Power, which stipulates that a military officer must be prosecuted in a military court.

"The defendant cannot be prosecuted in a civilian court because he has since the beginning been investigated by the military police and indicted by the military prosecutors," he said.

The judge was commenting on the grounds provided by the defendant's lawyers that the defendant allegedly committed his crime along with a civilian accomplice, Donny Hendrian.

Donny was sentenced to nine years and six months in jail by the West Jakarta District Court earlier this month.

Some 30 attendees, mostly military court staff and plainclothes military members, packed the courtroom during the one-hour hearing at the military court.

Also present at the hearing, which started at 9 a.m, were the defendant's lawyers, including Col. A.B. Setiawan and Lt. Col. A. Affandi, and military prosecutors Maj. Bambang Aribowo and Maj. P. Situmorang.

Agus, the oldest son of former Army chief Gen. Subagyo Hadisiswoyo, and Donny were arrested by city police detectives during an early morning raid at a hotel in West Jakarta last August.

The police confiscated from the hotel room 1.6 kilograms of shabu-shabu (crystal methamphetamine), 6,218 ecstasy pills, 27.9 grams of heroin and 25 sachets of Valium pills, along with a bag of drug paraphernalia.

In the indictment, the military prosecutors accused Agus of possessing and carrying narcotic and psychotropic substances. They said the police seized two small plastic bags of shabu-shabu and marijuana, packed in a matchbox, from Agus' trouser pockets.

Judge Sarman also rejected the lawyers' request that the case be dropped, saying that the indictment was incomplete because it failed to mention the weight of the drugs seized from Agus.

"The military prosecutors mentioned the weight of the drugs in the military police's criminal laboratory report.

"The indictment is complete as it has mentioned the place, the chronology and the time the alleged wrongdoing was conducted," he said.

The presiding judge adjourned the hearing until Friday to hear testimonies from witnesses. (asa)