Petrus sues police over arrest

Petrus sues police over arrest

JAKARTA (JP): Lawyer Petrus Bala Pattyona filed suit at the
South Jakarta District Court on Monday, protesting his arrest by
city police officers last week.

The suit named Jakarta Police chief Maj. Gen. Noegroho
Djajoesman as defendant.

"The city police officers failed to equip themselves with
sufficient evidence to conduct the arrest," Petrus said in his
suit, adding that the arrest was a violation of Article 17 and
paragraph 2 of Article 18 of the Criminal Code.

Petrus was accompanied by fellow lawyers grouped in the
Defenders Team for Lawyers' Honor.

The group, led by Trimedya Panjaitan of the Association of
Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Protection, met with the
court's clerk Julrizal.

The group of 53 lawyers from various law firms and
organizations said it would defend Petrus in the proceedings.

Earlier, the lawyers claimed to bring some 150 of their
colleagues to represent Petrus in court.

The hearing of Petrus' lawsuit is scheduled to begin next
Thursday.

The lawyers coordinator, Trimedya, said the group was unable
to collect the signatures of all the lawyers supporting the
action.

"We had a coordination problem. We had difficulty in
assembling the lawyers altogether in one place," he said after
filing the lawsuit.

Petrus dismissed allegations that he mobilized many lawyers in
an attempt to have the charges against him dropped.

"It is only a matter of solidarity among lawyers," he said.

Among the lawyers supporting Petrus are members of the
Indonesian Advocates Association (AAI), PBHI and the Jakarta
Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta).

Several plainclothes detectives arrested Petrus on Dec. 14,
shortly after the latter attended a pretrial lawsuit filed by his
client Mirafsur Khan, who is the father of drug suspect Zarina.
Television news footage showed him vigorously protesting the
arrest as he was bundled into a waiting vehicle.

Petrus was accused of submitting a fake letter of testimony of
Zarina's fellow suspect Ahian Santoso, alias Yeye, to judge I Gde
Putra Yadnya of the South Jakarta District Court in a hearing
earlier this month.

Petrus represented Mirafsur, who filed a suit at the court
last month to demand the court declare as unlawful the city
police's move to arrest his daughter on Nov. 11. The court ruled
in favor of the city police and dismissed the suit last Friday,
declaring the arrest to be lawful.

Zarina, once dubbed the country's "ecstasy queen" after a
prior conviction for storing a huge quantity of the drug, was
arrested with Yeye at a hotel-apartment complex in West Jakarta
for drug possession. (asa)