Police accused of abusing students

JAKARTA (JP): The police physically abused two student activists arrested during a demonstration protesting the recent fuel price hike, their lawyer told a court here on Wednesday.

Heppy Sebayang, the lawyer, said during the trial of the two students that several police officers had violated the students' human rights during their arrest, questioning and detention.

Mixilmina Munir, 22, a leader of the Jakarta students' City Forum (Forkot), and Aris Wardoyo, 25, a member of Forkot, were being tried in the South Jakarta District Court for violating Article 160 of the Criminal Code on inciting disorder. The offenses were alleged to have taken place during a Forkot demonstration on June 16.

Sebayang remarked that several police officers slapped both defendants when they refused to answer questions during questioning.

"There are human rights violations involved in this case," he asserted.

He also said that the indictments were inaccurate and incomplete as they failed to specify the precise time and place of the alleged crime.

Mixil and Aris said in their respective defenses that they had never incited disorder as alleged by public prosecutor Lukimanto.

"We reject the indictment as we are innocent," they said.

They also quoted the words used by the late Baharuddin Lopa (former attorney general) who said: "We must uphold justice even if the sky is falling down."

Judge Abdul Majid Rahim adjourned the trial until next week to hear further prosecution arguments.

Before the trial started, some 200 students from Forkot and the Jakarta Network (Jarkot) staged a rally on JL. Ampera Raya outside the courthouse in support of their colleagues, causing a traffic jam.

They displayed banners reading "Free our friends" and "Dismiss the National Police chief, provincial police chief and the state prosecutor."

The students then attended the hearing, during which they clapped their hands and launched interruptions, all of which resulted in the proceedings becoming very noisy. (04)