Throwing in the towel against Tommy?
Throwing in the towel against Tommy?
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The prosecution appeared to throw in the towel on Wednesday
during the cross-examination of Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, the
alleged mastermind behind the murder of Supreme Court Justice M.
Syafiuddin Kartasasmita.
While Chief Prosecutor Hasan Madani normally asked probing
questions, this time he seemed to skip from one question to
another.
Asked about his poor performance, Hasan told reporters after
the hearing that he would not waste his energy as it would be
useless.
"He denied everything, including everything contained in the
case file, let alone our indictment. He'll just keep on denying
everything," he claimed.
Tommy is facing four charges: the murder of Syafiuddin, the
illegal possession of firearms at the Cemara Apartments in
Central Jakarta, and in Pondok Indah, South Jakarta, and flight
from justice. Each of the first three charges are capital
offenses.
Despite the seriousness of the charges, Tommy's cross-
examination lasted only about two-and-a-half hours.
The questions mostly concerned the charge of fleeing from
justice.
Tommy calmly answered all the questions posed by Hasan and the
judges, denying all suggestions of wrongdoing.
A defendant's statements during his cross-examination, Hasan
said after the session, formed part of the evidence that went
toward proving an indictment. But in the end, it was the judges
who would make the final decision.
But the judges themselves did not seem to be overly
enthusiastic about cross-examining Tommy.
On several occasions, Presiding Judge Amiruddin Zakaria
interrupted Tommy's testimony to warn the spectators not to make
noise.
The case is being heard by five judges: Amiruddin, Andi Samsan
Nganro, Herri Swantoro, I Ketut Gde and Pramodana K. Kusumah
Atmadidja.
Judge Andi Samsan Nganro admitted that he had not given his
best performance on the day as he was ill.
"I jumped from one question to another because I couldn't
concentrate. I have a bad flu," he told The Jakarta Post.
He said that Judge Herri Swantoro was unable to attend the
trial as he was suffering from typhoid. Herri was replaced by
Sylvester Djuma, who did not utter a word during the hearing.
The trial will resume on July 10, when prosecutors will
present their sentence recommendation for the defendant.