Questioning over July 27 riots continues
JAKARTA (JP): The authorities continued their questioning yesterday of Budiman Sudjatmiko, chairman of a small leftist group accused of subversion, and announced a fresh round of questioning of witnesses.
Deposed chief of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) Megawati Soekarnoputri is to be questioned again on Tuesday.
Senior journalist Goenawan Mohamad, government critic Ali Sadikin and Catholic priest Father Ismartono of the Indonesian Bishop's Conference have all been summoned for questioning on Monday.
Ismartono chairs the interfaith relations department at the Indonesian Bishop's Conference; Goenawan heads the unrecognized Independent Election Monitoring Committee, while Ali Sadikin is a leader of the Petisi 50 group of government critics. They will be questioned as witnesses in the cases against labor activist Muchtar Pakpahan and Budiman.
Both Muchtar and Budiman, who heads the Democratic People's Party, have been accused of inciting the July 27 riots which erupted after the storming of the PDI headquarters -- then occupied by Megawati loyalists -- by supporters of new chairman Soerjadi.
Soeryadi is also to be questioned again on Wednesday, according to the spokesman of the Attorney General Office, Pontas Pasaribu. The office has also sent a second summons to Bambang Widjojanto, the executive director of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute.
Bambang refused to answer the first summons, saying that he could not be questioned as a witness against Budiman, who had already solicited his legal help.
The questioning of Budiman by officers at the Attorney General's Office lasted for six hours yesterday. His lawyer Johnson Panjaitan said that 26 questions were put to Budiman.
At the City Police headquarters, officers began their questioning of Benny Sumardi, the brother of Father Ignatius Sandyawan Sumardi S.J., a Catholic priest accused of protecting Budiman and his friends when they were being hunted by the authorities. Sandyawan gave the fugitives shelter at Benny's house in Bekasi, a suburb east of Jakarta.
Pontas said journalists are now allowed to interview and take pictures of those being questioned at the Attorney General's Office.
Detainees
Separately, the Jakarta Provincial Prosecutors' Office released five PDI supporters from the Salemba detention center in Central Jakarta yesterday. They were among the 124 Megawati supporters arrested following the party headquarters' takeover on July 27.
Prior to being detained at Salemba, they were held at the City Police detention center.
Munir from the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute Foundation, which is coordinating a team of more than 60 lawyers representing the detainees, said that none of the lawyers asked for the five detainees to be released.
However, he said that he asked for the release of five women and an 18-year-old man from the Pondok Bambu detention center. "They are in a weak condition. One of the women, Nurhayati, is three months pregnant," Munir said.
Munir's colleague, Luhut M.P. Pangaribuan, said that the detainees could demand compensation from the government for the hardships they experienced during detention. (16)