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One injured as troops quell protest

Source
Agence France Presse - March 23, 1999

Jakarta – Indonesian troops opened fire to disperse a crowd protesting the acquittal of an MP charged with embezzling 12 million dollars, injuring one student, reports said Tuesday.

Around 200 students outside the courthouse in Ujung Pandang on Monday pelted stones after Nurdin Halid, an MP for the ruling Golkar Party, was acquitted, the Jakarta Post said.

Nurdin had been on trial on charges of embezzling 12 million dollars from farmers' compulsory deposits at a local cooperative in South Sulawesi province, of which Ujung Pandang is the capital.

Presiding judge Suwito said prosecutors had failed to prove the charges against Nurdin, and ordered the return some 880,000 dollars of farmers' money in the cooperative which had been confiscated as evidence.

"The court will also restore the defendant's rights and good name," the Post quoted Suwito as saying.

The students, shouting that the trial had been a farce, marched through the streets, smashed the window of a car owned by the co-op and stoned the cooperatives building.

The injured student was treated for a bullet wound to the hand, the Post said, adding that troops patrolled the main streets of the city late Monday.

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