Soekardjo's lawyer detained

YOGYAKARTA: Police picked up lawyer Satryawan Guntur Zass here on Thursday after he failed to respond to two previous police summonses.

Zass has been representing Soekardjo Wilardjito, a former aide to Sukarno who alleged that four generals intimidated the founding president into relinquishing power to Soeharto.

The lawyer rejected the summonses because he reportedly did not want to be a witness in the case against his own client. Police have been questioning Soekardjo for slander.

Soekardjo has insisted he saw four generals -- not three as recorded in the official historical account of the March 11, 1966 event -- visit Sukarno at the Bogor Presidential Palace.

He said the four generals forced Sukarno into signing a document giving Soeharto (then minister of the Army) a carte blanche to take measures to restore order following the 1965 aborted coup attempt blamed on the outlawed Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).

Responding to reporters' questions on Zass' detention, Chief detective Lt. Col. Erwin Tobing said the lawyer was not "picked up" because the police had obtained a warrant. (23)