Yorrys' absence delays gambling trial
JAKARTA (JP): Seven people, including an executive of a shadowy, powerful youth organization, were arraigned at the West Jakarta District Court yesterday in connection with gambling.
Yorrys Raweyai, the day-to-day chairman of Pemuda Pancasila, was supposed to have been tried along with six other defendants on charges of organizing and playing rummy and macok at a storehouse in West Jakarta in July, but didn't show up in court yesterday.
The defendants were tried in two separate trials.
Yorrys, who was tried along with Sundoro Tan, Budianto and Hadi Mustapa -- all gamblers -- was tried in a separate trial, while three other persons accused of organizing the gambling were tried in another trial.
"He probably has not received the subpoena," said Ruhut Sitompul, the lawyer of Yorrys.
Presiding judge Ismail Sebayang adjourned the trial of Yorrys and three other defendants until Monday, asking prosecutor Noor Said to produce Yorrys in the next trial. Yorrys had been released on bail shortly after his arrest.
Yorrys was arrested along with six other defendants on July 20, at a gambling den at Jl. Daan Mogot 125, West Jakarta.
During the raid, police also confiscated Rp 1,572,000 (US$724.4) in cash, cards and other gambling paraphernalia.
The arrest of Yorrys, which stirred controversy, prompted Yapto Suryosumarno, the number-one person of Pemuda Pancasila, to allege that it was politically motivated, a charge denied by Jakarta Military Commander Maj. Gen. Hendropriyono.
Pemuda Pancasila is affiliated to the ruling Golkar group.
In a separate trial, prosecutor Noor Said accused defendant Abidin, 52, Bok Tjik Lim alias Halim Harto, 45, and Ng A Tjan alias Herman Chandra, 64, of organizing the gambling.
Said said that under the law gambling is illegal.
The court adjourned the trial until next Monday to allow the defendants' lawyers, who comprise of Tommy Sihotang, Ratih Puspa Nusanti as well as Sitompul, to prepare a preliminary defense statement.
Under the law a gambling organizer can be punished to a maximum of four years imprisonment or fined Rp 10 million, while a gambler, if convicted, can be sentenced to a maximum of 10 years jail or a Rp 25 million fine.
All of the six defendants are Indonesian citizens of Chinese- descent.
Yorrys himself is an Indonesian of mixed Chinese-Irian origin, an ethnic group in Indonesia's eastern most province of Irian Jaya which is popularly known as Serui Chinese.
Yorrys is known as an influential figure in Pemuda Pancasila, a shadowy youth organization whose tentacles reportedly reach into labor, prostitution, loan sharking, transportation and protection rackets.(09)