Prosecutors stick to their guns on Bintang

JAKARTA (JP): State prosecutors yesterday repeated their request of last month to the Central Jakarta District Court to sentence outspoken politician Sri Bintang Pamungkas to four years in jail for calling President Soeharto a dictator.

Reading the prosecutors' rejection to the defendant's recent defense statements, P. Sitinjak, head of the prosecuting team, said that Sri Bintang had been proven guilty of slandering the President and therefore they were sticking to their previous request that the defendant must be jailed for his statement.

Trying to prove Bintang's guilt, which was allegedly committed during a discussion at the Technische Universitaet of Berlin last year, the prosecutors told the court that Sri Bintang had kept shirking his responsibility for his own statement.

Sitinjak said that, in order to dodge responsibility, the defendant claimed the source of the defaming words was Sunarto and Sri Basuki, the two witnesses, who actually testified for him.

The prosecutors concluded "Sri Bintang, who is trying to escape responsibility, cannot lead a national cause and is not suitable to become a public figure."

He added that the two key witnesses has blown the cover of Sri Bintang and his efforts to hide his activities in Berlin.

Witness Sunarto confirmed before the court the truth of the indictment but he did not remember the original wording.

Sunarto testified that Sri Bintang told the discussion at the German university "in principle the two leaders (Sukarno and Soeharto) had deviated from the 1945 Constitution for which they would either fall or be ousted."

The prosecutors also said that what had worsened the defendant's position was that he did not speak frankly and that he had tried to confuse the court.

Firstly, Sitinjak said, the defendant had tried to deny that the recorded voice was his but later he tried to put the blame on the floor at the discussion, based on the recording.

Bintang's lawyers will address the court for the final time next Wednesday, April 17. (16)