Tomy too ill to testify against 'Tempo'

M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Tycoon Tomy Winata failed to appear at the Central Jakarta District Court on Monday to testify in the legal battle between himself and Tempo weekly magazine.

"Witness Tomy Winata cannot attend the trial because he is sick," prosecutor Robert Tacoy told the panel of judges, presenting a letter from a doctor at Mitra Kemayoran Hospital in Central Jakarta.

The letter does not specify Tomy's illness but recommends that he rests for five days.

Robert then proposed that the court proceed to hear the testimonies of two other witnesses Anton Anggoman and Andre Sianipar.

Member of the defense team for Tempo Trimoelja D. Soerjadi rejected the prosecutor's proposal, saying that Tomy had to testify on the first occasion because he was the primary witness in the defamation suit.

"Tomy was the one who filed the complaint for this criminal suit. His testimony must be heard first and since he is absent we insist that the hearing is adjourned," he said.

Presiding judge Andriani Nurdin decided in favor of the defense team and adjourned the trial until Oct. 27.

The chief editor of Tempo, Bambang Harymurti, and two of the weekly's journalists, Ahmad Taufik and T. Iskandar Ali, are standing trial for violating the Criminal Code on defamation, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

The businessman, Tomy Winata, filed the lawsuit following an article published by the weekly that implied that he was responsible for the fire that razed the Tanah Abang textile market in Central Jakarta.

Meanwhile, Trimoelja was summoned by the National Police later on Monday to make a statement concerning documents in the dossiers of Tempo journalists allegedly falsified by police detectives.

Adj. Sr. Comr. Tito Karnavian and Adj. Comr. Ponadi have been declared suspects.

"It (the mistakes) can't be a typographical error as the date was clearly written in letters," Trimoelja said, referring to dates on documents relating to the case.

Earlier, city police chief Insp. Gen. Makbul Padmanagara defended his officers, saying that the mistakes were "administrative mistakes".