Trial adjourned after judge overwhelmed by arguments

JAKARTA (JP): A judge adjourned on Tuesday the trial of 36 protesters who failed to show their identification cards for Jakarta (KTP) after the first defendant became involved in an argument with the judge.

The courtroom for the hearing, a 20 meter by 10 meter makeshift tent set up in the National Monument (Monas) park, Central Jakarta, became noisy when the first of the 36 defendants rounded up during an all-day protest at City Council, Slamet, claimed to be innocent of the charges.

"Everybody has a right to live anywhere, including Jakarta. Therefore, the government should not arrest and prosecute us, expel us from our homes, merely because we don't have identity cards for Jakarta," the man from Karang Anyar said.

However, judge Sofyan Sitompul from the Central Jakarta District Court rejected the argument, saying that every city had bylaws that should be observed by everyone.

As the defendant insisted he was innocent, the judge ordered the court officials to produce witnesses.

However, the first witness, Soehermanto, was opposed by Slamet and lawyer Daniel Panjaitan from the Legal Aid Foundation (LBH).

"The witness was not one of the officials who took part in the arrest," said Slamet.

Soehermanto, an official at the City Public Order Agency, dismissed the speculation, saying that he was present during the arrest.

The defendant's lawyer touched on the legal technicalities of the trial, including the status of another witness and the absence of the officials acting as "investigators and prosecutors for the case".

The second witness, H.S. Gaol, was also protested by Daniel as he stood behind the judge during the questioning of the first witness.

"It is not fair because he already knew the previous witness' testimony," Daniel said.

According to court procedure, a witness should be outside the courtroom when another witness is giving his or her testimony.

Judge Sitompul adjourned the trial until Thursday.

He argued that the trial had to be adjourned as the officials from the city administration, who were acting as investigators and "prosecutors" for the case, failed to attend the trial.

Officials from the City Public Order Agency, prosecutors from the Central Jakarta District Office and activists from the Urban Poor Consortium, the non-governmental organization that organized the all-day rally staged by the defendants at City Council recently.

The defendants were taken to court after they were arrested on Friday in front of City Council on Jl. Kebon Sirih. The demonstrators, from Karang Anyar, Pondok Kopi, Rawasari and other subdistricts, had been protesting since Monday last week, demanding the government to stop removing them from their shanties. (asa)