Students sentenced for assault

Students sentenced for assault

JAKARTA: Eighty four students who attacked a man they
suspected of being an intelligence officer appeared at the
Central Jakarta District Court on Thursday and were each ordered
to pay a Rp 25,000 (US$2.8) fine or spend three days in police
detention.

The students had on Wednesday staged a rally in front of the
office of the Jakarta chapter of the Golkar Party, demanding the
dissolution of the party. But it turned into a brawl with
security personnel, leaving some students injured.

Taking their wounded friends to the nearby St. Carolus
Hospital, the students saw a man sitting in the waiting room and
attacked him as they mistakenly thought he was an intelligence
officer monitoring them. The victim was slightly injured.

Opening the trial, which lasted only in 20 minutes, presiding
judge I Ketut Gede spent the first five minutes berating the
students who had risen and chanted the songs they often sang at
rallies as the panel of judges entered the courtroom.

"The court has sentenced you ... for you know what," he said,
banging down the gavel, ignoring the students' demands to have
their charge read out.

According to the court transcript, the students were found
guilty of assault and trespass.

The courtroom was packed with the defendants and their friends
as well as dozens of riot police.--JP