Court crowd hoists underwear to protest verdict

The Jakarta Post | Tue, 03/01/2011 3:41 PM | Archipelago

Family members and friends of two convicts in Bandung protested a district court verdict on Tuesday by waving underpants of various colors around the courtroom.

The hearing had seen Deni Muharom and Carli Hamdani found guilty for stealing rocks meant to be used in the construction of a house belonging to Uma Maryono. The pair had allegedly stashed the rocks on a vacant lot in Bandung.

For their crimes, the court ordered the pair to serve nine months’ in prison.

Prosecutors had demanded Deni and Carli serve 1.5 years in prison.

However, after the verdict was handed down acquaintances of the convicts chanted and waved underwear around the courtroom.

“The verdict is unfair. A legal mafia [is at play] here. Take these underpants.” they said, as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.

The crowd paraded in front of the court’s chief, Joko Siswanto.

Serang villagers protest against Chinese cemetery plan

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Thu, 01/27/2011 11:32 AM | Archipelago

Hundreds of residents of Balekambang village, Banten, have staged a demonstration to protest against a plan to build a Chinese cemetery in the area.  

The coordinator of the demonstration, Sulton Aziz from the Residents’ Anti-Chinese Cemetery Solidarity Group, said the plan had gone against existing procedures and regulations, Antara reported Thursday.

The developer had not secured any building permit or a permit from local residents to build the cemetery, he added.

During the protest, which lasted two hours on Wednesday, residents carried banners calling for all residents the arear to oppose the plan.

A Buddhist foundation, Yayasan Timur Raya, plans to build the cemetery on a 500 hectare plot of land near the village. So far it has acquired only 20 hectares for the cemetery.  

Aziz said some villagers had agreed to sell their land because they were told it would be used for a cattle farm.