Defendant Is Absent Again, Pretrial Trial Of Lawyer Didit Wijayanto Wijaya Is Adjourned

JAKARTA - The South Jakarta District Court has again postponed the reading of the pretrial application submitted by Didit Wijayanto Wijaya, the lawyer named as a suspect. The sole pretrial judge, Alimin Ribut Sujono, has again postponed the trial for one week.

"We will summon the Respondent (the prosecutor's office) with a warning because he has been summoned twice but did not attend. The trial has been postponed for one week until next Monday," Alimin said during the trial, Monday, January 10.

The Prosecutor's Office named Didit as a suspect for obstruction in the investigation of a corruption case in the implementation of national export financing by the Indonesian Export Financing Agency (LPEI) in 2013-2019. Didit is subject to Articles 21 and 22 of the Anti-Corruption Law.

Upon the determination and detention, the National Leadership Council (DPN) of the Indonesian Advocates Association (Peradi), the organization that oversees the lawyers, filed a pretrial. Antoni Silo expressed his disappointment over this delay.

"Pretrial seems useless," said Antoni.

He emphasized that this pretrial was proposed by Peradi as an advocate organization, not just an individual or Didit.

Antoni was also worried about the postponement of the trial because the respondent was not present. Because, Antoni received information that Didit's case file would be transferred.

"With the transfer of files, the pretrial will automatically fail. So what is the pretrial for," he said.

Antoni reiterated that his client filed a pretrial against the Attorney General's Office regarding the validity of the detention and determination of the suspect, including whether the evidence had met the legal requirements.

"We have investigated and looked for the facts, Didit did not do anything that we think hindered the investigation. Why does he present his client when he is summoned. Then, there was a summons process with an order to bring, which we think was arrested. That's what we pretrial," he said.