Saddam Hussein sues police

JAKARTA (JP): A citizen in Pekalongan, Central Java, who shares a name with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, is suing the police for false arrest.

Thirty-year-old Saddam Hussein, who professes to be an admirer of both the Iraqi leader and late Indonesian president Sukarno, said he was briefly detained by the police on the accusation that he had stolen a video cassette recorder found in his electronic repair shop, Antara reported.

Only later did the police accept his explanation that the video player really belonged to one of his customers, he said.

But instead of releasing him, the Pekalongan police then dug out an old file on him which suggested that he had insulted President Soeharto in 1992.

That case had already been settled by the local military command in the same year, said Saddam, who was accompanied by lawyer Girsang Tarigan of the Semarang Legal Aid Institute. (emb)