Organizer to be tried over Hefner seminar

Organizer to be tried over Hefner seminar

JAKARTA (JP): The Central Jakarta police have completed
interrogating the host of an unlicensed seminar on Islam which
authorities forcibly dispersed last month.

They have formally charged Bondan Gunawan with holding a
public gathering without an official permit. Under Indonesian
law, he faces a maximum sentence of four years imprisonment if
found guilty.

Bondan, who hosted the seminar which featured an American
scholar on Indonesia, R. Hefner, said authorities began
questioning him Monday.

"I have nothing to worry about, and I want to explain (in
court) that the particular article in the Criminal Code which
police used to base their charges against me is no longer
relevant nowadays," he told The Jakarta Post Tuesday evening
after a day of interrogation. Through the more than five hours of
questioning on Tuesday, he was accompanied by lawyers Luhut MP
Pangaribuan, Hari Purwandoko, Adnan Buyung Nasution and Paulus R.
Mahulete from the Jakarta branch of the Indonesian Legal Aid
Foundation.

Bondan said that police charged him with holding an "illegal
activity".

The Criminal Code requires that public gatherings involving
more than five people must obtain an official permit. The
relevance of this particular law is increasingly being questioned
by critics who point out that it is a legacy of the colonial
administration which used it to suppress freedom of expression.

The disruption of the seminar was only one in a series of such
actions authorities have taken against intellectuals critical of
government policies.

The stoppage of the seminar organized by the newly founded
Indonesia Baru Foundation was well publicized in international
media largely because police also interrogated Hefner, an
anthropologist from Boston University, for approximately six
hours.

According to Bondan, he is, at present, the only suspect in
the case.

Earlier, police announced they had two suspects, Bondan and
the seminar's organizer, Sigit Edi Sutomo, who also serves as the
foundation's chairman.

Sigit told the Post that he and other organizing committee
members had not received any further summons from the police
since his questioning immediately following the disruption of the
seminar.

"We are ready to appear before investigators any time they
request us," Sigit said.

Sigit and three other foundation members Sugeng SP,
Taufiqulhadi and Herdi were initially accused of violating rules
in the Criminal Code concerning public gatherings.

Police said that Hefner was questioned only as a witness.

In the case of Bondan's seminar a permit for the seminar was
granted by a neighborhood head, not by the police. According to
Bondan, other seminars have also been disrupted because they have
obtained permits from authorities other than the police.

City Police Chief Maj. Gen. Dibyo Widodo insists that, "the
existing rule states that the permits have to be issued by the
police, not by a neighborhood head." (bsr)