AGO still undecided on trial of bad bankers
Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
The Attorney General's Office (AGO) is undecided about whether to proceed with prosecuting fugitive bad bankers who stole state money but risk not recovering state losses, or drop the charges and agree to accept repayment of their debts.
Deputy Attorney General for Special Crimes Hendarman Supandji said he was confused and was not sure what to do.
"I don't know what to do. I have asked for suggestions from the government on how to handle the case," he told House of Representatives Commission III for legal affairs during a hearing on Thursday.
Hendarman's office initially planned to try in absentia bad bankers who fled overseas after stealing billions of dollars worth of state funds in a bid to resolve graft cases that had been stalled for around seven years and to demonstrate to taxpayers that justice was being done.
The case centers around the disbursement of more than Rp 144 trillion (about US$14 billion) in government funds by Bank Indonesia to help bail out troubled banks in the wake of the 1997 financial crisis. But according to a state audit, more than 90 percent of the funds were misused, causing the state to suffer huge losses. While some bankers surrendered their assets in lieu of repayment, some ran away to countries that do not have extradition treaties with Indonesia, such as Singapore.
The case is known here as the BLBI case.
Hendarman was supposed to submit earlier this week a case against a bad banker, Agus Anwar, to the court for an in absentia trial. But a proposal from Agus to return the embezzled funds plus interest on the condition that the case against him be dropped has apparently put Hendarman in a dilemma.
Agus, former president director of Bank Pelita, is accused of misusing Rp 492 billion in Bank Indonesia liquidity support funds.
"Agus' lawyer, Patricia Sri Ambarwati, sent a letter to the attorney general requesting that his case be dropped if the government wants him to return the money," Hendarman said.
He explained that Agus, who recently acquired a Singapore residence permit, offered to return the money along with interest totaling around Rp 600 billion.
Hendarman said that the case against bad bankers could be dropped as long as they repaid the state losses they caused as stipulated under the Master of Settlement and Acquisition Agreement (MSAA), a mechanism agreed to by the government and the bankers on how to recover the state losses.
He added that a decree issued in 2001 by the People's Consultative Assembly also ruled that the government should consistently apply the MSAA.
The MSAA, however, has been strongly criticized by many parties as it allows bankers to escape justice for the crimes they committed.
Commission III member Akil Mochtar of the Golkar Party faction, said that the AGO should no longer take into account the Assembly decree in its decision as it was no longer valid after the election of a new government in 2004.
He suggested that the AGO proceed with prosecuting bad bankers.
According to Law No. 31/1999 on corruption, the returned money or assets would have no impact on the criminal prosecution of the case.
After receiving the information, Hendarman said he would study the legal basis of the MSAA before making a decision.
Resolving the BLBI case is seen as a test case for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono after he promised in his election campaign to eradicate rampant corruption in the country.