Jakarta – Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, who is being tried on charges of involvement in acts of terror, and his lawyers walked out of the courtroom on Wednesday in protest against the judges' decision to allow the prosecution to read out the sworn statements of four witnesses in their absence.
The lawyers rejected the prosecutors reading out witnesses' statements in the case files that identified Ba'asyir as the leader of the regional Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) terror group.
The four witnesses were Wan Min Wan Mat, Ahmad Faisal and Ahmad Saefullah Ibrahim, all being detained in Malaysia, and Fariz Abubakar Bafana who is currently imprisoned in Singapore. They have been charged under the Internal Security Act for alleged involvement in JI.
"With due respect, we are leaving this room until the reading is over," Muhammad Assegaf, chief counsel for the 66-year-old cleric, told the judges.
Seconds later, Ba'asyir also walked out. "I cannot stay here without my lawyers. I have to leave the hearing too." Assegaf said the judges' decision contravened Article 162 of the Criminal Law Procedures Code (KUHAP), which allows for the reading out of a witness' disposition only under three circumstances.
"First, if the witness dies. Second, if he or she cannot attend due to legal obstacles or because of long distance, and third, for other reasons related to the state's interests," he told the court.
Chief prosecutor Salman Maryadi challenged the argument, saying his office was trying Ba'asyir under Article 27 of Law No. 15/2003 on terrorism.
"Remember that this case is being tried under the Antiterrorism Law, a lex specialis (specific law) which regulates matters that are not covered by KUHAP," he said.
Salman said that Article 27 stipulates that information given verbally could be used in terror trials, so that the results of investigations conducted in Malaysia and Singapore could be presented to the court.
Presiding judge Soedarto accepted the prosecution's argument and instructed that the readings proceed, even without the presence of the lawyers.
Four prosecutors took turns reading the interrogation files of the four witnesses, in which they admitted to having met with Ba'asyir at the Hudaibiah camp in the southern Philippines, allegedly set up by JI.
Earlier, Mubarok alias Hutomo Pamungkas, one of the convicted Bali bombers, appear at Thursday's trial but refused to testify, arguing that he had told all that he knew to police during his interrogation.
"I don't want to testify. All that I said is in the case file," Mubarok said.
Ba'asyir stands accused of being involved in the Bali nightclub bombings in 2002 and the JW Marriott Hotel attack in 2003. He could face the death penalty if convicted. (006)