'Tempo' reports mayor over false info

'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