Unidentified men shoot human rights lawyer's car

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Two unidentified men fired shots at the parked car of lawyer Johnson Panjaitan in the parking lot of the Indonesian Legal and Human Rights Association (PBHI) offices on Jl. Cikini Raya, Central Jakarta, on Monday afternoon, a witness said.

The incident happened at 4.10 p.m., or some minutes after Johnson parked his green Feroza in the parking lot. Two shots struck the left rear door of the car while another one hit a hubcap.

Johnson escaped injury, according to witness Ecoline Situmorang, as he had already left the car when the shooting occurred.

Ecoline, who is also a PBHI lawyer, told The Jakarta Post that Johnson, herself and two colleagues had pulled up in the parking lot from the Central Jakarta District Court after attending the trial of Faisal Saifuddin, a prominent figure in the Aceh Referendum Information Center (SIRA).

After parking his car, Johnson went off to meet a colleague while Ecoline bought some food at a stall near the parking lot.

"I was paying for the food when I heard three shots. I saw two men on an old black GL Pro motorbike and a smoking gun in one of the men's hands," said Ecoline.

She suspected that the men, who were wearing black leather jackets, knew Johnson's car well and that they deliberately picked his car as their target given that there were many other cars parked there at the time.

A shocked Johnson was unable to give any precise motive for the shooting.

"I think they're trying to terrorize me," Johnson said, adding that intimidation by unidentified persons was nothing new for him.

Johnson has handled many criminal cases that were connected with politics. Among these was the case of last year's Jakarta Stock Exchange bombing, in which the prime suspect, Acehnese Tengku Ismuhadi Jaffar, was convicted and sentenced to 20-years imprisonment.

Currently, Johnson is defending SIRA leader Faisal Saifuddin. The defendant was has been charged with spreading antistate propaganda during a demonstration outside the United Nations building on Jl. M.H. Thamrin, Central Jakarta, last year.

During the protest, Faisal described the Indonesian government as being neocolonialist.