AGO plan to try absent tycoons sparks criticism from expert

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Attorney General's Office plan to try several businessmen in absentia will set a bad precedent for Indonesia's judicial system, a legal expert said.

"I believe the government should first try to have a defendant appear in court through diplomatic channels," Frans Hendra Winata said when asked about the men, such as Syamsul Nursalim of Bank Dagang Negara Indonesia and Bambang Sutrisno of Bank Surya, who are reportedly residing in foreign countries.

The problem is that the government knows the addresses of these businessmen, yet it will go ahead with in absentia trials, which amounts to irresponsible political will, said Frans on the sidelines of a hearing with the House of Representatives Commission II for home and legal affairs.

Citing an example, he said the address of ailing former president Soeharto was known, but he had not been tried in absentia because of his poor state of health.

On the other hand, the businessmen abroad whose addresses were known were forced to be tried in absentia.

Frans said these trials would not be effective since both the defendant and especially the state assets were not able to be retrieved.

Separately, Bambang, the former commissioner of now defunct Bank Surya, has asked for protection from the Human Rights Commission on what he sees as a violation of his human rights in relation to his claims of legal violations committed by the Attorney General's Office.

Sutrisno, who has resided in Singapore since July 1997, stated in a letter to the commission that the attorney general's filing of a criminal case against him at Central Jakarta District Court recently on charges of misusing emergency liquidity credit from Bank Indonesia was legally defective.

"I had completely resigned from Bank Surya and sold all my shares at the bank on Sept. 8, 1997 to another shareholder, and the central bank's liquidity credit to Bank Surya was extended in December 1997 under a loan agreement signed by Sudwikatmono, the then chief commissioner, and Kiki Ariawan, who was then president. It was also these two people who later signed the shareholders settlement agreement on the central bank's credit in 1998," he said.

He added that a recent statement released by the Attorney General's Office that said it did not know of his whereabouts was a lie because it had always been informed of his permanent residence in Singapore.