Tomy too ill to testify against 'Tempo'

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".