'Tempo' reports mayor over false info

Chief editor of Tempo Bambang Harymurti gave on Friday a statement to Jakarta Police investigators in connection with an earlier report on Central Jakarta Mayor Hosea Petra Lumbun, whom he accused of giving false information in a libel case against the weekly.

"We reported Hosea Petra Lumbun two weeks ago for giving out false information to police investigating the libel suit filed by businessman Tomy Winata against Tempo," Bambang's lawyer Darwin Aritonang said.

Darwin said the libel case file showed Lumbun told the police he had never been interviewed by Tempo reporters for the March 2003 Is Tomy in Tenabang?, the article over which Tomy had sued the magazine.

"The fact is, reporter Juli Hantoro interviewed (the mayor) on Feb. 19, 2003, while Indra Dermawan interviewed him by phone on Feb. 28, 2003, for the article," he said.

The prosecution used Lumbun's statement as the key incriminating evidence in seeking a two-year prison sentence for Bambang, who was tried along with two other Tempo journalists for allegedly defaming Tomy in the disputed article.-- JP