Supreme Court asked to address lawsuit rumors
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)