Syahrul Ansyari, Foe Peace Simbolon – Metro Jaya regional police Public Relations Division Head Senior Commissioner Yusri Yunus claims that there were technical errors in the document summoning them to appear as defendants in a pretrial suit submitted by six Papua treason suspects challenging their arrest for flying the Morning Star flag – the symbol of the Free Papua Movement (OPM).
As a result, when they arrived at the South Jakarta District Court the hearing was already over. The Metro Jaya regional police therefore deny that they intentionally failed to appear. As has been reported, the police have twice failed to appear so the hearings have had to be postponed.
“There was a small mistake in the summons, yes, first on when to arrive, second there was a mistake in the summons. [So] when the hearing was held we were late”, said Yunus at the Metro Jaya police headquarters on Wednesday November 27.
Yunus added that the Metro Jaya police will defiantly attend the next hearing and made assurances that they would be there so that it would not have to be postponed again. “We will definitely attend all of the next pretrial hearing”, he said.
The lawyers for the six suspects, who have been indicted for flying the Morning Star flag during a protest action at the State Palace on August 28, have submitted a pretrial suit with the South Jakarta District Court against the Metro Jaya regional police over their arrest and indictment.
“We submit that aside from their invalid declaration (as suspects) there were many procedural irregularities during the raid and search, because they did not have a warrant from the local district court. It was not witnessed by two people from the local RT [neighborhood association] and RW [community unit]”, said Papua Advocacy Team member Oky Wiratama Siagian at the South Jakarta District Court on Tuesday October 22.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was “Tak Hadir di Sidang Praperadilan Kasus Papua, Polisi Bantah Sengaja”.]
