Judges reject request to move bombers trial to Cilacap

Dicky Christanto ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Denpasar   |  Fri, 02/29/2008 11:57 AM  |  Bali

A court has rejected a request from three Islamic militants on death row for the 2002 Bali bombings to shift their case review hearings to a court near their maximum security jail.

A lawyer for the three Bali bombers -- Imam Samudra, Amrozi and Ali Ghufron -- had argued that moving the hearings to Central Java's Cilacap district, near the prison where they are being held, would make it easier to produce more evidence and witnesses.

But a Denpasar District Court judge on Thursday dismissed the argument.

"The convicts argue that it is to present new evidence and witnesses, and that it will be easier for expert witnesses to appear in Cilacap's district court, but no detailed explanation of the argument has been given, hence it is rejected," Ida Bagus Putu Madeg, presiding judge for Samudra's case, said as quoted by Reuters.

Another judge said the Denpasar court, which is holding separate hearings for each of the Bali bombers, did not have the jurisdiction to decide whether or not the three convicts could be allowed to testify in Cilacap.

"The authority to move the trial hearings is in the hands of the Supreme Court judges, and as long as the judges do not make any ruling regarding the request, we have to continue the trial process here in Denpasar," judge Nyoman Sutama said at the hearing of Amrozi.

Amrozi, Ghufron and Samudra were sentenced to death for orchestrating the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people.

Nyoman asked the lawyers to present the new evidence and witnesses as they promised to the court.

Suparta Jaya, one of the prosecutors, welcomed the judges' decision, saying it was in compliance with the Criminal Code.

"There is no need to move the trial to Cilacap because, according to the Criminal Code, an appeal trial must be held at the district court where the case initially proceeded," he said at Amrozi's hearing.

Fachmi Hamid of the Muslim Lawyers' Team (TPM) criticized the judges' decision, saying they should not continue the trial until the Supreme Court judges reached their decision over the matter.

He said he wanted to discuss it with the convicts first before attending the next trial.

He said if they finally decided to move on, the TPM would submit its official objection regarding the trial at the next session.

"With all due respect, it seems the judges have ignored their own rules by continuing the trial," he told reporters outside the court.

As a consequence, he added, the lawyers would likely not bring the new evidence and witnesses to the court as promised.

"We said in the motion submitted that the main reason behind the request was due to efficiency reasons. We guarantee to be able to bring witnesses and evidence as long as the process is held in Cilacap. Now, as the judges said the trial must be held here, they are the ones who have to bring the witnesses here and not us," he told reporters.

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