Union leader gets eight months

Union leader gets eight months

MEDAN, North Sumatra: Riswan Lubis, the secretary of the Medan
branch of the All Indonesian Prosperous Union (SBSI), was
sentenced to eight months imprisonment by the local district
court for mobilizing workers to take to the streets.

Riswan was found guilty by the court for his role in the
workers' riots in the city last April which left one businessman
dead and dozens of factories damaged.

Presiding judge Ayub Bardan said the 20,000 workers
demonstrating created anxiety and unrest among people in the
city, the Antara news agency reported.

SBSI chairman Muchtar Pakpahan, along with a number of other
local SBSI leaders, is also being tried in the same court for
allegedly inciting workers to commit violence. (emb)