Ade Yasin Writes To The Judge For Never Being Presented Face-to-face

The fourth trial of the alleged bribery case of the West Java Representative BPK auditor with the agenda of reading the interlocutory decision at the Bandung Tipikor District Court, Bandung/ANTARA

BANDUNG - The defendant in the alleged bribery of the West Java Representative Audit Agency's auditor, the inactive Bogor Regent, Ade Yasin, wrote to the panel of judges because during the trial period he was never presented face-to-face at the Bandung Tipikor District Court.

"Your honor, the panel of judges, I respectfully request that I can attend the trial in person," said Ade Yasin's attorney, Dinalara Butar-butar when reading a letter written by his client at the fourth session with the agenda for reading the interlocutory decision, in Bandung, Antara, Monday, August 1st.

A letter containing an inscription regarding his objection to the online trial was delivered round-the-clock to the Chairman of the Panel of Judges, Hera Kartiningsih, before the trial was closed.

He has held online trials four times. The first and second trials were from the Polda Metro Jaya detention center, and the third and fourth trials were from the Class IIA Bandung Women's Detention Center.

At the fourth trial, he interrupted the trial at least three times because he could not hear what the judge said.

Butar-butar said, from the beginning the team of attorneys had asked the KPK prosecutors and the panel of judges to present their clients face-to-face in court.

"Why do we always insist on asking the defendant to be present at the trial? Because the defendant is the one who feels the most about this incident," said Butar-butar.

The lawyer admitted that he would continue to fight for him to be presented at every trial. One of them is by obtaining a letter of approval from the Ministry of Law and Human Rights.

"So we will pursue the letter, hopefully the letter can be responded to (by the judge) so that the trial on Wednesday, Bu Ade can be present at the trial offline," he said.

Meanwhile, Kartiningsih said they still did not eliminate the rights of the accused even though they were only presented online at the trial.

"I will also send a letter to the Ministry of Law and Human Rights. I will try to do that. If the policy from the Ministry of Law and Human Rights cannot be issued, it means that the trial will remain online, the judges can no longer do anything," he said.