04-02-2004 20:14:00 GMT . Fonte LUSA. Notícia SIR-5798637 Temas:

East Timor: Gen. Wiranto said ready for Dili video-conference atrocity hearing

Dili, Feb. 4 (Lusa) - Indonesia's former military chief, General Wiranto, has agreed to a video-conference appearance before an East Timorese court that has indicted him for crimes against humanity, Dili's attorney general said Wednesday.

Attorney General Longuinhos Monteiro told Lusa that he discussed the initiative with Gen. Wiranto's lawyers in Indonesia last week and that Jakarta's former defense minister and military chief of staff had agreed.

No date had been set for the video-conference hearing, Monteiro said.

"This is a very important process and I wanted to guarantee its advancement", Monteiro said, adding that he met with Wiranto's lawyers in Bali Jan. 30-31 and gotten their guarantees the general would participate in the hearing.

He said he went to Bali because he knew Wiranto "would be there".

The assurance of Wiranto's participation in the hearing had been given by his chief lawyer, former Justice Minister Muladi, Monteiro added.

Dili's Serious Crimes Unit formally summoned Wiranto on Jan. 28 to a "pubic audience" to determine whether there is ground for issuing an arrest warrant against him.

The general is considered a frontrunner in Indonesian presidential elections slated for later this year.

The Dili court has indicted Wiranto and six other senior Indonesian officers and Jakarta's last governor in the occupied territory, Abílio Soares, one year ago on charges of responsibility in the wave of violence that swept East Timor around the time of its 1999 independence plebiscite.

Monteiro confirmed that East Timorese President Xanana Gusmão made a brief stopover in Bali while he was there last week, but said he doubted the president had met with Wiranto.

"I don't know if he met (Wiranto), but I don't believe so", Monteiro told Lusa.

EL/SAS Lusa

Copyright © 2003 Agencia Lusa. Todos os direitos reservados.

www.lusa.pt