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)