Students point out their assailants at trial

JAKARTA (JP): Three of the 21 students who are being tried on charges of defaming President Soeharto said on Saturday that they were beaten by security officers at the House of Representatives (DPR) shortly before they were arrested last December.

M. Rifki Kholid, one of the defendants, said that the students were beaten by police, military officers and DPR security guards at the House's lobby where they were staging a peaceful protest.

"I remember that you beat me too!" he said pointing at Aca Suharsa, one of the security guards who was giving his testimony for the prosecution at Saturday's hearing at the Central Jakarta District Court.

Suwito, another defendant, corroborated the allegations saying that some of the students' faces were swollen as a result of the beatings. Wandi Nicodemus Tuturong said he helped carry Yeni Rosa Damayanti who fainted during the assault.

Aca rejected the allegations of undue force and said he did not see anyone falling to the ground as the students claimed.

"You're a liar," Wandi told the security guard.

Aca stressed in his testimony that the students were in perfect shape when they were rounded up by the police.

Besides Aca, four other members of the DPR security guards also gave their testimony at the hearings on Saturday.

None of the testimony was particularly incriminating, as the security guards were simply there to confirm the presence of the students at the House.

The 21 students are being tried in three separate groups, numbering four, six and 11 respectively.

They were arrested on Dec. 14 while staging a demonstration at the House demanding that the People's Consultative Assembly convene an emergency meeting to make President Soeharto account for a number of violent incidents that have taken place in the country.

The public prosecutors say that the posters unfurled by the students and their yells were offensive to President Soeharto. The maximum penalty for defaming the head of state is six years imprisonment.

When the students were asked to comment on the testimonies given by the security guards, they accused the witnesses of simply parroting police version of the events leading to their arrest.

Conflicting

The testimony of Sugeng, one of the security guards, also conflicted with a statement he gave to the police last December directly after the arrest, the students said.

They pointed out that in his statement to police Sugeng said he heard the students chants but at the court hearing he said he never heard the students chanting slogans.

The students' trial continued to attract large numbers of their colleagues. This has posed some problems to security officers guarding the trials which, in the past, have seen skirmishes outside the courthouse.

Some 100 students turned up at the hearing on Saturday and staged a noisy protest after they were denied access to the court room. Outside, they sang patriotic songs loud enough to be heard by their colleagues who were on trial.

Court security later decided to let the students in.

The defendants had earlier protested the tight security measures that were imposed on the trials. These measures served to limit the number of people who wished to observe the trials. (01/par)