Policemen, official testify for soothsayer

YOGYAKARTA (JP): Two policeman and a civil servant testified yesterday that soothsayer Permadi Satrio Wiwoho did not actually call Prophet Muhammad a dictator in a seminar as prosecutors have alleged.

They told the district court in Sleman that Permadi had only agreed with a participant's comment that the Prophet Muhammad was an example of a "good dictator."

The court heard testimony from Dwi Tafianto of the Sleman police precinct, Sugeng Dwi Haryono of the Yogyakarta police headquarters and from Sunarto, an employee of the Sleman regency government. All three were present at the seminar.

Permadi is being tried on charges of insulting Islam by calling the Prophet Muhammad a "dictator" while addressing a closed seminar at Yogyakarta's Gadjah Mada University last year.

The two policemen had previously told police investigators that they heard Permadi describe the prophet as a dictator but they retracted their statements as recorded in the dossiers after failing to answer specific questions put by the judge and Permadi's lawyers.

The witnesses then admitted that they had heard the words on a tape recording played to them while they were being questioned at the national police headquarters in Jakarta.

During a tense session, one of Permadi's lawyers, H.M. Dault, warned the witnesses they are liable to prosecution if they were lying.

All three witnesses testified that there had been no reaction from the floor when Permadi responded to the participant's comment that the prophet was authoritarian.

Therefore, Dwi Tafianto said, he had reported to his commandant that the seminar had proceeded orderly and without incident.

He acknowledged that Permadi's comment had only become an issue after he was summoned to the national Police headquarters in Jakarta as a witness. (02/pan)