Printer denies knowing of defamatory articles

JAKARTA (JP): Witnesses testifying at a trial of a man charged with defaming President Soeharto by printing an issue of unlicensed Suara Independen magazine told South Jakarta District Court yesterday they were involved in its printing but denied knowing its precise contents.

According to the indictment, 32-year-old Andi Syahputra commissioned Zaiyan Putra printing shop to print the magazine, which contained offending articles.

Jazrul Zen, the owner of the printing shop, told the court yesterday he received an order from Andi to print 5,000 copies of a magazine, the name of which he only mentioned as SI, on Oct. 23, for Rp 1.3 million.

The defendant, who was arrested after police raided his printing shop, said that one day after he got the order he started printing the magazine. "It was at that time an employee alerted me about the harsh political terms in the magazine," he said.

Jazrul later asked Andi to sign a statement releasing the printing shop of all responsibility for the contents of the magazine.

Andi signed the statement on Oct. 26 afternoon, but several hours later police officers arrived and raided his shop, Jazrul said.

"They also confiscated 3,000 copies," he added.

His employees Zainuddin and Janimar had testified that they found harsh words when they read the printing plate and printed copies of the magazine by chance.

When the judge ordered them to recount the harsh words, they all said they only read the material briefly and were unable to go into detail.

Under cross-examination, Jasrul said "I was so busy that I didn't have time to read the articles."

After a long debate Judge Hasan Wahyudin commented "I can't understand why these people have been let free while they know the contents of the magazine."

The trial was adjourned until next week to hear testimony of other witnesses, who include an Indonesian language expert, a Ministry of Information staff member, and a man who prepared the magazine films. (13)