Ulma Haryanto – Two laws that give the Attorney General's Office power to ban books should be reviewed, a lawyer representing the Islamic Students Association told the Constitutional Court on Thursday, after pleas from authors whose books were banned that the laws be annulled.

"My clients include student representatives from HMI, as well as the author Muhidin M Dahlan," Gatot Goei told the court, referring to the student association by its Indonesian acronym.

"Both the 1963 law and the 2004 law must be amended, they believe, because unless both are amended, it will hamper the development of students who thirst for knowledge," he said.

"Pak Muhidin is also dis-advantaged because of these two laws. The government should not be banning his book."

The two laws being challenged are the 2004 Law on the Attorney General's Office and the 1963 Law on Securing Printed Materials (whose content could disrupt public order).

Under the 2004 law, the AGO has the task of monitoring printed material. The 1963 law on printed materials allows the office to ban distribution and to confiscate books.

"Both laws may prohibit the freedom of people to express their thoughts and feelings through writing, and writers might have to face criminalization for what they write in the future," Gatot said.

The AGO has banned five books in Indonesian, including "Lekra Never Burns Books," which was written by Roma Dwi Aria Yuliantri and Muhidin.

Muhidin, who lives in Yogyakarta and did not attend Thursday's session, told the Jakarta Globe that he had never received official notification from the AGO in regard to the banning of the book.

"I only heard it via rumors, and then I saw it in the news-papers. But I never received any official notification that my book had been banned by the AGO," Muhidin said. He said he would visit Jakarta next month to attend the plenary session of the judicial review.

Presiding judge Muhammad Alim said he would give the plaintiffs 14 days to revise their filing, including to combine their request for a judicial review with Darmawan MM, another author whose has seen his writing banned.

"Both of you requested a judicial review of the same laws, so I think that your requests should be combined," Alim said.