Trial adjourned after judge overwhelmed by arguments

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)