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Court rejects Buni Yani’s pretrial motion
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The South Jakarta District Court rejected the pretrial hearing request submitted by Buni Yani (center), the uploader of the edited video of Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama’s speech in Thousand Islands, during his pretrial hearing on Wednesday. (JP/Safrin La Batu)
T
he South Jakarta District Court rejected several arguments presented by Buni Yani, the uploader of the edited video of Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama’s speech in Thousand Islands, during his pretrial hearing on Wednesday.
Among the arguments the court had put aside, were several testimonies from witnesses and experts it considered to have touched the core material of the defendant’s online hate speech case.
“A pretrial hearing only adjudicates [whether or not there is a violation of] procedures,” said lone judge Sutiyono when he read out the court’s decision on Buni’s pretrial motion.
(Read also: Buni Yani optimistic about winning pretrial motion)
In the hearing, Sutiyono overturned Buni’s accusations, which stated the Jakarta Police had named him a suspect without following proper procedures, and rejected his pretrial motion.
Buni’s lawyer team presented several witnesses and experts, including criminal law and linguistic experts, during the previous pretrial hearing last Tuesday. The legal team claimed all arguments proved that Buni was innocent.
One of witnesses presented was a member of the organizing team of two anti-Ahok rallies on Nov. 4 and Dec. 2. The witness said the two mass rallies had been triggered by Ahok’s remarks in the video rather than Buni’s post.
Buni is a suspect for inciting religious and ethnic hatred for posting a truncated version of a video that showed Ahok mentioning a Quranic verse. (ebf)
