'Tempo' bid for trial delay rejected
'Tempo' bid for trial delay rejected
Urip Hudiono, Jakarta
The Central Jakarta District Court refused a request by the
lawyers for embattled Tempo magazine to delay the libel suit
trial against some of the weekly's journalists until a related
legal decision had been made.
During Monday's trial, scheduled to hear the defense plea of
chief editor Bambang Harymurti, lawyer Trimoelja D. Soerjadi said
they could not deliver the plea yet because the processing of
their complaints of false evidence and false witness testimonies
were greatly intertwined with their client's defense.
"We request that the trial be adjourned until the complaints
have been attended to and followed up on," he said.
Bambang and journalists Ahmad Taufik and Tengku Iskandar Ali
have been on trial after being accused of libel by businessman
Tomy Winata apparently related to an article in March 2003
entitled 'Is Tomy in Tenabang?'. The article insinuated that Tomy
may have been involved in the fire that gutted the Tanah Abang
textile market in February 2003.
Trimoelja told the court that the defendants had filed a
complaint over Tomy's alleged perjury on July 26. Tomy denied
ever being interviewed by Tempo for the article, even though
other witnesses and evidence showed the opposite.
On Sept. 23, 2003, the defendants also filed a complaint over
concocted evidence by Adj. Sr. Comr. Tito Karnavian and Adj.
Comr. Ponadi. The two police officials allegedly issued a
confiscation warrant on March 11, 2003, for some gubernatorial
letters related to the case. The letters were actually dated
March 13, 2003.
"To our disappointment, none of the complaints have been
followed up on," Trimoelja said, also questioning why the court
was reluctant to summon other key witnesses, including Central
Jakarta Mayor Hosea Petra Lumbun, to testify.
As a result, the lawyers suspect discrimination against their
clients.
"Tomy filed his complaint against our clients on March 11,
2003, and the police immediately prepared the case's dossier,"
Trimoelja said. "But, our clients have seen no progress on their
complaints even 10 months after filing them."
Presiding judge Suripto refused the lawyers' request and told
them to prepare the pleas for the next hearing, on Aug. 16.