Jakarta – On Thursday December 5 the South Jakarta District Court accepted material evidence during a pretrial suit challenging treason charges against Surya Anta and five other Papuan suspects. The evidence, which was in the form of documents, was handed over by the defendant, the Metro Jaya regional police.
The sole judge in the case, Agus Widodo however requested that police attach the original documents as evidence, not copies. As a result, the judge adjourned the hearing for five hours after hearing testimony from an expert witness.
Speaking during the adjournment in the hearing, the lawyer representing the Metro Jaya police said that they were endeavoring to borrow the original documents.
"[The investigation dossier] is already P21 [the final stage in a police investigation], so we have had to try and borrow the original documents", said Metro Jaya police legal aid sub-division head Assistant Superintendent Nova Irone Surente.
Despite the five-hour delay, the Metro Jaya police were still unable to present several items of evidence and the original documents. As a result the police had to attach copies of the documents as evidence.
"Earlier we tried our best, but (the case dossiers) have already been handed over [to the prosecutor's office], so we stuck with our initial evidence", said Surente after the hearing resumed.
The hearing was resumed at 7 pm. Both parties conducted a re-examination of the evidence presented before the judge. The examination took around two-and-a-half hours.
The police claim to have around 150 pieces of additional evidence to strengthen their case that the law enforcement procedures were conducted legitimately. The evidence is in the form of police investigation reports (BAP), instructions and so forth.
The plaintiffs meanwhile also submitted photographs and a video as additional evidence which had not been included earlier.
One of these was a video showing the arrest of Surya Anta at the Plaza Indonesia mall in Jakarta on August 31. The lawyers showed the judge that Anta was not given an arrest warrant and it was only shown to him briefly by police.
Papua Advocacy Team lawyer Oky Wiratama also said looking at all the irregularities found when examining the documents earlier, that she hoped that the judge would make an objective assessment of the matter.
"The documents had the dates left blank, so they could provide the documents after making the arrests", said Wiratama. "Earlier the warrant authorising the raid from the Depok District Court was dated September 9", she added.
Yet the police conducted the raid on the Lani Jaya Papuan student dormitory in Depok on August 30.
As has been reported, the case began with a rally in front of the State Palace on August 28 in which the Morning Star independence flag was flown. Six people were subsequently arrested on August 30 and 31 and then declared suspects on charges of makar (treason, subversion, rebellion).
On October 22 the lawyers representing the six suspects filed a pretrial suit challenging the arrests with the South Jakarta District Court. The Papua Advocacy Team believes that there were procedural errors in the arrest and indictment of the suspects.
"Our clients were never summoned first as witnesses, but all a sudden arrested and declared suspects", said Wiratama.
The six Papua activists were handed over the Jakarta State Prosecutors office on Monday November 18 and will so be tried in court on charges of treason. (mjo/eks)
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Polisi Beri Bukti Salinan di Sidang Praperadilan Surya Anta".]