Two students testify on behalf of Sri Bintang
Two students testify on behalf of Sri Bintang
JAKARTA (JP): Two Indonesian students yesterday gave the clearest testimony to date as to what controversial politician Bintang Sri Pamungkas really said during a lecture in Germany last April.
Bintang is being accused by government prosecutors of calling President Soeharto and his predecessor Sukarno dictators and of violating the constitution.
But Iwan Setiabudi and Syaiful Huda, two students who organized the lecture, denied that Bintang ever made the accusations during the lecture in Berlin.
While confirming that Bintang did mention the word "dictator", the students in their separate testimonies said that the politician was simply reformulating a question that had been put to him by one of the lecture participants.
Iwan said the question came from a participant identified as Sri Basuki, an Indonesian who was sent to study in Germany in the 1960s but is now a resident in Germany.
Sri Basuki described both Sukarno and Soeharto as dictators in her prologue, Iwan said.
Before responding, Bintang tried to summarize the question and it was then that he repeated the word dictator, he added.
To refresh his memory, chief prosecutor P. Sitinjak yesterday played a recording of the lecture but the quality of the cassette recording was too poor to understand.
"I cannot recognize the persons' voices on the cassette," Iwan said after the tape was replayed.
Syaiful Huda in his testimony also denied that Bintang had suggested that Soeharto and Sukarno had violated the constitution and stressed that the remarks came from another participant, identified as Sunarto.
Syaiful said that Sunarto was another Indonesian sent to study in Germany in the 1960s, when he took up permanent residence in Germany.
Lawyers representing Bintang yesterday urged the court to summon both Sri Basuki and Sunarto to testify.
"Both Sri Basuki and Sunarto are valid witnesses who can reveal the real dialog of the alleged remarks," Adnan Buyung Nasution, one of Bintang's lawyers, told the judges.
The trial was adjourned until next Wednesday, when testimony will be heard from Bahasa Indonesia expert J.S. Badudu and constitutional law expert Harun Al Rasyid.
The defense lawyers also asked the court yesterday to order the government to reimburse the fares and accommodation expenses for the two Indonesian students who were flown in from Germany to testify for the defendant.
The two witnesses, Ignatius Irianto and Christianto Indratmo Suherman, have not had their expenses paid as the government promised earlier, the lawyers said. (imn)