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udges at the East Jakarta District Court were roundly heckled Wednesday after they declared Khoe "Aseng" Seng Seng, a kiosk owner who wrote to Kompas daily's "Letter to the Editor", guilty of libel.

"We find the defendant guilty and sentence him to one year's probation," presiding judge Robinson Tarigan ruled Wednesday, to loud jeers from those in attendance.

"There's no justice!" one shouted.

Aseng wrote the letter after discovering his kiosk in North Jakarta's ITC Mangga Dua shopping complex was actually built on land that belonged to the local administration.

He discovered this when renewing his certificate after more than 16 years running his business at the kiosk, developed by property giant PT Duta Pertiwi Tbk.

Fellow kiosk owner, Kwee "Winny" Meng Luan, also wrote a letter, titled "Be careful when purchasing PT Duta Pertiwi properties!" to the Suara Pembaruan daily.

The court handed down the same sentence in her case, after the company sued both under Article 311 of the Criminal Code on defamation.

Aseng and Winny said that when they bought their units in 1992, Duta, a subsidiary of the Sinar Mas Group, claimed they had full rights to build, and not rights to build and manage, as was later discovered.

"The company clearly deceived me about the status," Aseng said.

Winny concurred, saying, "I remember paying a high price for my kiosk, because they said I would have full rights to it."

Defense lawyer Hendrayana said both would appeal the verdicts.

"It's quite clear the judges were not being objective, because they only considered evidence that benefitted the plaintiff," he said.

The Press Council expressed disappointment over the court's ruling.

Sabam Leo Batubara, head of the Press Council's public complaints unit, told The Jakarta Post that under the press law, newspapers should be held responsible for published letters, and not writers.

"It seems the court overlooked my testimony as an expert witness in the case," he said.

Under the press law, Batubara added, Duta Pertiwi should have written responses to the newspapers if they felt slighted.

He said the public should not fear writing complaints now.

"If you feel cheated by any service, you should complain," he said.

"If it turns ugly, we will assist."

The Indonesian Consumer Protection Foundation's (YLKI) Tulus Abadi faulted the judges' ignorance of the consumer protection law, which allows consumers to complain about unsatisfactory services.

"I don't think the judges learned this law," Tulus said.