Supreme Court asked to address lawsuit rumors

JAKARTA (JP): Lawyers representing Megawati Soekarnoputri called on the Supreme Court yesterday to respond to growing rumors that the law courts have succumbed to government pressure in trying cases involving the ousted PDI chairwoman.

Around 40 members of the Public Defenders for Indonesian Democracy visited the Supreme Court demanding an explanation to the allegations that courts were ordered not to try the lawsuits which Megawati and her supporters had filed across the country.

The lawyers failed to meet Chief Justice Sarwata. Instead, they met Secretary-General Mangatas Nasution.

R.O. Tambunan, the leader of the delegation, said he had heard from "very reliable sources" that Supreme Court officials met with several government officials on two occasions last year to discuss the lawsuits.

"It seems that there was a connection between those meetings and the decisions to dismiss the lawsuits on the grounds that the courts did not have sufficient authority to determine the legality of Soerjadi's leadership or of the PDI officials who went to the Medan congress," he said.

The lawsuits, filed in Jakarta and several other cities by Megawati and her supporters, called on the courts to annul the results of the government-backed PDI congress last June which removed Megawati from the party helm and reinstalled Soerjadi in her place.

The suits named senior government and military officials as well as Soerjadi and his chief supporters as codefendants.

Tambunan said the first meeting took place in Central Jakarta. During that meeting, he alleged, the government officials requested that the courts prepare ways of dismissing the lawsuits on technical grounds.

At the second meeting, which took place in Yogyakarta, the officials "equipped" the judges, he said without elaborating.

"Every Indonesian, especially Megawati's supporters, places their hopes on the courts to uphold justice.

"But their hopes have been in vain because the court decisions were based on political rather than legal considerations," Tambunan said.

Nasution admitted that he attended the meeting in Yogyakarta but he neither denied nor confirmed the allegations that pressure was put on the judges to dismiss the cases.

He told the lawyers that he would pass their message to the chief justice.

The same team of lawyers have also represented Megawati and her supporters in various other lawsuits.

They were defeated when representing more than 100 people accused of taking part in the July 27 riot.

They are now representing Megawati, who has been questioned for holding a political meeting without a police permit at her residence in January. (05)