Sudomo, Siska chose to end their four years' old marriage

Sudomo, Siska chose to end their four years' old marriage

JAKARTA (JP): Retired admiral Sudomo, and his second wife
Fransiska Diah Widowati, have failed to reconcile their
differences, deciding to end their four years of marriage.

Presiding Judge Soedjatman from the South Jakarta District
Court said on Friday that lawyers for both Sudomo and Siska said
that their clients stuck to their original plea for divorce and
refused to reconciliate their differences.

"We have tried but failed," said Siska's lawyer, Abdul Bari
Azed in reply to a question from Judge Soedjatman whether he had
tried to reunite his client with Sudomo.

While Jane. T. Puguh, Sudomo's lawyer from O.C. Kaligis' law
office, refused to comment when she was approached by tens of
reporters covering the trial as she left the court room.

"I have nothing to say," Jane said.

Neither Sudomo, currently chairman of the Supreme Advisory
Council, nor Fransiska, popularly known as Siska, showed up at
the court trial.

Sudjatman said that Fridays' trial, which lasted only 15
minutes and was closed to the press, has reached the conclusion
stage because both lawyers of Sudomo and Siska have presented the
court with all of the required evidence.

The trial was adjourned until next Friday when the court is
expected to hand down a verdict.

Sudomo, former Coordinating Minister of Political Affairs and
Security, 68, married Siska, former movie actress, 33, at Paulus
church, Central Jakarta, on Sept. 20, 1990. Sudomo is a
Protestant.

Ceremony

Several senior government officials, including then minister
of defense and security L.B. Moerdani and Chief Justice Ali Said,
attended the marriage ceremony.

The trial marks the second failed marriage for both Sudomo and
Siska. The retired admiral has previously been divorced from
Fransisca Piay, the mother of Sudomo's four grown children, while
Siska was also a divorcee when she married Sudomo.

Sudomo and Siska seemed happy for much of their four-years
together, overcoming the more than 30-year age difference. Even
Siska's departure for a three month study in France last month
did not seem to threaten the marital bliss.

But the press was shocked by Sudomo's action of filing a
divorce suit at the South Jakarta District Court early last
month, due to what he called `irreconcilable differences'.

The second Mrs. Sudomo, who is reportedly still abroad since
before the court trial started, has never attended any of the
four previous hearings.

The presiding judge said that the court has always summoned
both parties for every court session but Sudomo only attended the
first session while his wife was always represented by her
lawyer.

When queried if Mrs. Sudomo is still in Paris, Abdul Bari
Azed, her lawyer, said only "yes".

Like the four previous sessions, the fifth session of Sudomo's
divorce trial attracted attention from the press, with some
reporters and a private TV station crew arriving at the court
building at 6 a.m. and awaiting the arrival of newsmaker Sudomo
and Siska.(03)