Students protest before court

BANDUNG: Hundreds of university students assembled at Bandung State Administrative Court to support a lawsuit filed by a fellow student who was expelled in May for his alleged involvement in the death of a first-year student earlier this year.

Budi Sumarso was filing a suit against Wiranto Arismunandar, rector of the prestigious Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), for expelling him.

Budi, who was accompanied by a team of lawyers from the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation, said that his expulsion by the rector violated the principle of presumption of innocence.

"The rector punished Budi before the investigation has been completed and the court has begun the trial," one of Budi's lawyers said.

Zaki Tiffany Lazuardian, an 18-year-old freshman at the department of physics, died in January after joining the rigorous 12-day initiation period organized by his seniors in the department.

Budi's lawyers said there was no post-mortem report that listed the true cause of Budi's death.

"Thus, the blame should also be put on some of ITB's leaders who did not do a good job at controlling the initiation activities," the lawyers said in a statement from the lawsuit.

The crowd of students supporting Budi came close to being involved in clashes with security personnel. (14/17)