Trial of toll road case to start

BOGOR (JP): The trial of two men charged in connection with the 1996 fatal Jagorawi toll road robbery will start next Monday.

Spokesman for the Bogor District Court Usman Wahab told The Jakarta Post yesterday that the two men, Mikael and Hendrik, would be tried separately.

"They are accused of violating clause 44 of Article 365 of the Criminal Code," Usman said. The maximum penalty for this is death.

Usman said Judge Nurganti Saragih would preside over the trial of Mikael, also known as Erling Doly Wijaya. Usman will preside over Hendrik's trial.

"We have not been told who will be the defense lawyers," he said, adding that 14 witnesses were scheduled to testify in the trials.

There are three people suspected of the Oct. 11 robbery. The Bogor prosecutors' office is still finalizing the dossier on the third suspect, the mastermind of the robbery in which Zaenuddin Lesmana, a private company employee, was shot dead.

The robbers made off with more than Rp 300 million after killing Zaenuddin in his car. His two passengers were unharmed.

The two were declared suspects after their interrogation. One of them, Tjetje Tadjudin died in police custody. A police officer was sacked for torturing him. (24/sur)