Students fined Rp 2,000 each, three acquitted

JAKARTA (JP): Students charged with holding an illegal rally, were sentenced by the Central Jakarta District Court on Tuesday to pay fines of Rp 2,000 each (25 US cents), while three others who were wrongfully arrested were acquitted.

The 45 students, who called themselves the People's Protest Alliance, decided to appeal to the Supreme Court shortly after the judges -- Made Karna, Bambang S., Djafri Djamal and I Gede Sumitra -- announced the verdicts.

The defendants -- most of whom were from the National University with several others being senior high school students -- told the judges that they were beaten and kicked by police officers during their arrest.

The students were arrested when they held a street rally near the House of Representatives building on Jl. Gatot Subroto in Central Jakarta on Monday.

During the rally, they demanded that Armed Forces members relinquish their positions at the House of Representatives. They also called for a free and fair general election.

"We were arrested shortly after getting out of the buses. We had not even delivered any speeches," Andre told the judges. Other students gave similar testimonies.

Pablo Castelo, one of the students' lawyers, citing Article 12 of Law No. 9/1998 on freedom of speech, told judge Made that the arrest was illegal since the number of demonstrators was less than 100 people.

But Made and the other judges insisted that the defendants were guilty as they conducted a street rally without telling the police, as is required by law.

"Although your goal is noble, you have to abide by the law," Made said.

Pablo strongly protested the verdict, saying that the judges had failed to obtain testimonies from the defendants and had failed to take lawyers' statements into consideration.

The defendants, who arrived at the court at 11 p.m. in two police trucks, left the court at 3 p.m. marching and singing with their fellow students.

The three students acquitted were identified as Syamsu, Firmansyah and Lutfie.

The three, who were arrested along with the 45 students, told the court that they were making a phone call and waiting for buses when they were arrested.

After being declared not guilty, the three, accompanied by lawyers from the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association, said that they would sue police for wrongful arrest.

"The police should be charged for the wrongful arrests to make them more careful to arrest student demonstrators only," Syamsu said. (jun)