JAKARTA (Yosefardi) – A Military trial scheduled to be held Thursday (Sep 5) and Friday (Sep 6) would be a test for military judiciary reform when 12 soldiers from the Army’s Special Forces (Kopassus) Group 2 Kandang Menjangan headquarters, Kartasura, Yogyakarta, charged with the murder of four prisoners at Cebongan Prison, would face their verdict trial.
The trial will take place at the Military Court II-11 Yogyakarta and opened to public. However, the protection from the joint security forces is predicted tightly as set in previous trials.
Various groups, including National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) and the Judiciary Commision (KY), and also several Non-Government Organizations (NGO’s), reportedly will deploy their own teams to monitor the trial.
Komnas Ham has earlier urged the military tribunal to hold a fair, transparent and independent trial. Komnas HAM also urged the tribunal to look for evidence from the possibility involvement of higher-ranking military officers in the Cebongan massacre.
Wahyudi Djafar from the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (Elsam), meanwhile, also expressed his hopes that the trial will not become a ‘fake trial’ and panel of judges could issue a verdict for the sake of justice for the family’s victims.
While Sumiardi from People Coalition for Military Court Watch expressed his pessimism towards the verdict trial as previous trials did not show a significant reform of the military judiciary.
Similar pessimism also came out from the family’s victims. Victor Manbait, one member of the family’s victims, voiced about many irregularities during the trials. He said that he has toned down his expectation over the verdict trial.
“It seems we should find a justice through international community,” said Victor on Wednesday (Sep 4).
As reported earlier, the twelve Kopassus soldiers had been detained after proven as actors behind the murder of four prisoners at Cebongan Prison in Sleman, Yogyakarta, in March 23, 2013. (haryantos@yosefardi.biz)