'Tempo' lawyers want Tomy to stand trial for perjury
'Tempo' lawyers want Tomy to stand trial for perjury
M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Defense lawyers of Tempo magazine told the court on Monday to
order the prosecution of tycoon Tomy Winata for perjury in the
earlier hearing of the libel case in which three of the weekly's
journalists were defendants.
Lawyer Trimoelja D. Soerjadi pointed out that the latest
evidence presented in the hearing on Monday at the Central
Jakarta District Court contradicts Tomy's earlier statement that
he had never been interviewed by a Tempo journalist.
Reporter Veronica Bernarda Rurit testified before the court
that she had interviewed Tomy for a news report titled "Is Tomy
in Tenabang?", which was published in the weekly's March 3-9,
2003 edition.
"Two managing editors of Tempo told the court that Rurit was
assigned to interview Tomy. It was also confirmed by a recording
of a telephone interview provided by state-owned
telecommunication company PT Telkom," Trimoelja later told The
Jakarta Post.
Tomy earlier said in the trial that he had never been
interviewed by a Tempo journalists for the article and when a
recording of the interview was played in the courtroom, he said
that the voice might not be his and its authenticity needed to be
proven.
Tempo weekly chief editor Bambang Harymurti, journalists Ahmad
Taufik and T. Iskandar Ali were brought to court for violating
Articles 310 and 311 of the Criminal Code on defamation. If found
guilty, they could be sentenced to four years in prison.
The three were brought to court after a complaint from Tomy
who deplored the article, saying that it had tarnished his image
as a respectable businessman.
Trimoelja said that Tomy could be charged with perjury under
Article 242 of the Criminal Code, an offense that carries a
maximum sentence of seven years in prison.
"And if our clients ended up being handed down a more severe
punishment due to the false testimony, the prison term could go
up to nine years," he said, quoting the article.
The defense have petitioned the judicial panel to order state
prosecutors to file a lawsuit against Tomy.