School final exam trial takes unexpected turn

School final exam trial takes unexpected turn

JAKARTA (JP): The trial on the leakage of national high school
final examinations (Ebtanas) master copies took an unexpected
turn on Monday, when a witness denied claims that her jealousy of
a colleague had led her to order defendant Dwi Santoso to steal
the copies on March 30, this year.

"What Dwi has told (the police) is not true. I never ordered
the defendant to steal Ebtanas copies, for any reason," witness
Yeni Daryani said while Dwi stared at her defiantly at a Central
Jakarta District Court hearing, presided over by judge M. Daning
Sunusi.

The papers were allegedly leaked by the defendant, who had
worked for about three years as an office boy at the Directorate
General of Elementary and Secondary Education (Dikdasmen), the
Ministry of National Education.

The three-day examination for high school students were held
from May 22 until May 24.

Defense lawyer Soejoed told Yeni, a committee member for the
Ebtanas Project, that the defendant had told police detectives
that Yeni had been "very jealous" of witness Sri Yudiani,
subdivision head of systems and procedures at Dikdasmen, because
Sri had been awarded a position which Yeni had long coveted.

The defendant, Soejoed said, told the police that Yeni knew
that Sri had been given partial responsibility for taking care of
the conference room on the Dikdasmen building's fifth floor,
where the master copies of the examination papers were kept in a
safe.

"So, Dwi said you decided to tarnish Sri's reputation, and got
Dwi to steal the master copies," Soejoed said, to the vehement
denial of Yeni.

"That's just not true!" Yeni said.

Asked whether the police had ever questioned her as a suspect
in the case, Yeni said: "Yes, but those dossiers have not been
processed by the police."

Yeni also said that the only time Dwi had ever visited her
home, was with his girlfriend, on April 2 this year.

"That day, a staff member was getting married, and he and his
girlfriend, wanted to hitch a ride to the wedding ceremony," Yeni
said.

Dwi has been accused by prosecutor So'imah of violating
Article 362 of the Criminal Code on stealing and Article 322 of
the same Code on deliberately revealing confidential information
gained by virtue of one's employment.

Article 362 carries a maximum punishment of five years in
jail, while Article 322 carries a maximum punishment of nine
months in jail.

Yeni's testimony was, however, different than the one given by
Yeni's 18-year-old maidservant, Maemunah.

Despite showing extreme confusion to questions of the judges
and prosecutor So'imah, Maemunah confidently said that Dwi had
visited Yeni's residence on March 30.

"I opened the door then... he was with his girlfriend," said
Maemunah, who is no longer working with Yeni.

Maemunah added that she did not remember Dwi carrying a
purple-colored backpack -- which carried copies of the
examination papers -- during his visit to Yeni's home on March
30, and she never actually saw him speaking to Yeni.

Dwi in turn, said that he had visited Yeni's residence thrice,
namely on March 30, March 31 and April 2.

Yeni told the hearing that she only found out about the leaks
when staff members on the fifth floor had been called in for an
urgent meeting on May 26 by their boss, Bambang, who informed
them that examination copies from box no. 28 in the conference
room, had gone missing.

"He specifically told us not to report this matter to the
police or anybody else. His exact words were, 'Be careful! Don't
speak of this to anybody," Yeni told the hearing.

The story took another unexpected turn, when witness Dwi
Suwarno, a staff member in charge of photocopying the examination
master copies, told the hearing that Bambang had trusted the
defendant to do "the sorting of the top secret" photocopied
papers.

Meanwhile, Yeni said that Bambang had trusted the defendant
enough to order him to type out the questions of the examination.

Prosecutor So'imah said that on March 30, the defendant had
taken the master copies of examination papers in economic
studies, sociology, mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology.

"He made copies of them, distributed those copies to students
of South Jakarta state high schools -- which were then circulated
in East and West Jakarta state high schools, private high
schools, and West Java state high schools," she said. (ylt)