In the first session of the trial on the case public prosecutor Yuniarto read the charges against the two, namely violations of the immigration law and the Criminal Code.
"The court session will be resumed on August 1 with a hearing of witnesses," Yuniarto told newsmen.
The two had confessed coming to Indonesia using an official document from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) but denied that they had tried to smuggle people to Australia.
Presiding judge Nurhadi had asked the defendants to defend themselves against the accusations but they had refused to be accompanied by a lawyer and only wished to be accompanied by an interpreter.
They said they would only speak in a session allocated for his defense.
Qhaidar confessed they knew each other but did not know if their friend did not carry proper immigration documents. "I came to Indonesia using an official letter and I did not know if my colleagues did not carry official documents from the UNHCR," he said during the first session.
He said he did not know that Indonesia has an immigration law and therefore was willing to accompany his friends seeking an asylum in Australia by way of Sukabumi waters.
Abdul Qadir meanwhile said that he had been pressured by a team of police investigators of West Java to sign the investigation document. The judges refused to accept his statement saying that he could tell it during a session later.
Benyamin Sembiring admitted that the defendants had refused to be accompanied by him but he would attend the session when they would make their defense statements.
"The two were mere drivers and held UNHCR official documents. I discovered illogical things in the dossiers which I would tell during the session later," he said after the first session.
The two defendants were caught by the West Java police in two different locations, namely in Parungkuda and Pelabuhan Ratu, Sukabumi, while trying to take 34 illegal immigrants from the Middle East to Australia through Sukabumi last May.
(Uu.H-YH/HAJM/A014)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
