Judge Grants Bahar Smith's Request To Appear In Conference

The panel of judges presides over the Bahar Smith hoax case. (ANTARA/Good Ahmad Rizaldi)

BANDUNG - The Panel of Judges at the Bandung District Court (PN) granted the request for the suspect in the case of spreading false news, namely the speaker Bahar Smith, who was presented directly at the trial. Bandung, Bandung City, West Java, reported by Antara, Tuesday, March 29. However, the judge also had other considerations regarding Bahar's trial, which was often attended by mass supporters. According to judge Bahar Smith, the trial did not rule out the possibility to be held in another location besides the Bandung District Court. "However, due to limited space, maybe later we can coordinate with various related parties to hold this trial in another place," he said. Bahar Smith is reluctant to attend the online trial. It was reported by the prosecutor that Bahar had refused to leave the West Java Regional Police detention room to join the online trial.

So that the trial scheduled for reading the indictment had a debate between the public prosecutor and Bahar Smith's attorney. The public prosecutor's team wanted the trial to be held online. The reason is the prosecutor assesses that there are various obstacles if the trial is held offline. "We will continue for this trial online, but later when the verdict is offline, the decision remains with the panel of judges," said the Public Prosecutor from the West Java Prosecutor's Office, Suharja.

Meanwhile, Bahar Smith's attorney, Azis Yanuar, said the trial should have been held offline or present Bahar Smith directly. Because he felt there was a communication barrier if Bahar Smith attended the trial from the West Java Police. "We want Habib Bahar Smith to be presented, because this (online) is an obstacle," said Azis. this by presenting Bahar Smith within an hour. However, the prosecutor considered that this was not possible because the process was not easy. After the various requests, the judge finally decided that the trial was postponed to be continued at another time by presenting Bahar Smith in person. A follow-up trial for the agenda for reading the indictment was planned to be held on May 5, 2022. However, so far there is no information regarding the decision on where the trial will be held.