Tommy's trial postponed due to his lawyers' absence

Muninggar Sri Saraswati and Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Central Jakarta District Court postponed on Wednesday the trial of Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra due to the absence of his lawyers, who were protesting over the arrest of their colleague, Elza Syarief, for allegedly bribing witnesses.

Tommy delivered a letter from the lawyers to Presiding Judge Amiruddin Zakaria, who opened the hearing at 1.55 p.m in Hall C2 of the Jakarta Fairground.

Judge Amiruddin read out the letter, which was signed by Indriyanto Seno Adji, Juan Felix Tampubolon, M. Assegaf, O.C. Kaligis and Wimboyono Seno Adji.

The lawyers said that they had decided to stay away to show their solidarity with their colleague Elza, who is now under police detention, as well as protesting against the police action, which they claimed interferred with the trial.

They asked the panel of judges to suspend Tommy's trial until Elza's case, as well as those of Rahmat Hidayat and Tatang Somantri, were settled.

The lawyers asked the judges to issue a ruling on their request.

However, the judges rejected their request on the ground that Elza's detention had occurred outside the trial.

"We cannot suspend the trial as these are two separate matters. The detaining of Elza is beyond our jurisdiction," said Judge Amiruddin.

He then asked both Tommy and chief prosecutor Hasan Madani whether they wished to proceed with the trial or whether it should be recessed.

Hasan said that the absence of the lawyers meant nothing legally speaking and suggested that the court proceed with the hearing. But Tommy insisted on a recess given the absence of his lawyers.

According to Article 54 of the Criminal Law Procedures Code, a suspect or a defendant has a right to be accompanied by his lawyers during questioning or during the hearing.

Judge Amiruddin adjourned the hearing until next Wednesday.

"With or without the defendant's lawyers, we will resume the trial next week," he asserted, referring to the letter saying that the lawyers would be absent from Wednesday's hearing only, and that they would be back to represent Tommy next week.

Meanwhile, Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Makbul Padmanagara said that it was the investigating team that had the authority to free Elza Syarief, who has been detained since Monday.

"It's up to the investigators to decide whether or not they still need Elza for their investigations," Makbul told reporters.

Elza was arrested following accusations that she had bribed Rahmat and Tatang, who are currently under detention at Jakarta Police Headquarters, to lie during Tommy's trial.

She said that she gave Rp 1 million each to both of the former guards at the Soeharto family-owned Cemara Apartment to buy new clothes for attending the hearing on April 10.

But Rahmat has confessed that Elza gave them Rp 2 million each to deny the veracity of the statements they had made to police.

During the hearing on April 10, they both denied that the signatures on their statements were actually theirs. The police arrested Rahmat on April 14 and Tatang a couple of days later for violating Article 242 of the Criminal Code on perjury, which carries a maximum penalty of seven years in jail.

Elza is facing the same charge.