Witnesses presented in Endin's trial

JAKARTA (JP): The Central Jakarta District Court presented on Tuesday four witnesses during the trial of Endin Wahyudin in a defamation case filed by two Supreme Court justices.

The witnesses included Marnis Kahar and Supraptini Sutarto, the justices who had filed the defamation charges; Mesri Pasaribu, Endin's colleague and Ahmad Rizki, supervision section head of the central bank.

Judge Amiruddin Zakaria, who presided over the trial, said that Endin's lawyer, Irianto Subiakto, had asked the court to summon Marnis, Supraptini and Mesri again.

They had testified earlier during Endin's trial.

Ahmad, who was presented during the trial as an expert witness, confirmed that Bank Indonesia issued the Rp 50,000 (US$5.9) banknotes, with WR Soepratman's picture on it, on June 1, 1999. "Beforehand the banknote was illegal," he remarked.

In the dossier, Endin admitted that he had given some Rp 50 million to each of the justices and Rp 96 million to M. Yahya Harahap, a retired Supreme Court justice, late in 1998. The money is said to be consisted of the Rp 50,000 banknotes featuring the pictures of Soeharto and national hero WR Soepratman.

He told the now defunct joint anticorruption team (TGPTPK) about the bribery involving the justices.

Endin, a middleman, admitted that he had bribed three judges to win a legal dispute over a 17,000-square-meter plot of land in Bandung, West Java.

He then became a witness during the trial of Marnis, Supraptini and Harahap. However, the Central Jakarta District Court and the West Jakarta District Court suspended their trial last week.

The two justices filed a defamation case against Endin with the police last August.

Meanwhile, three other witnesses insisted on not changing their statements as stated in the case files.

Mesri insisted that he had accompanied Endin to give the money to bribe the justices while Marnis and Supraptini also insisted that they had never met or received any payment as claimed by Endin. (04)