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)