Alleged polluters break down in court

Theresia Sufa and Zakki Hakim, The Jakarta Post, Bogor/Jakarta

Eight defendants in a pollution case burst into tears upon hearing a prosecutor's demand for Cibinong District Court to sentence them to eight months in jail.

The defendants, Awang bin Nasuhi, Dadang bin Eyon, Nurhasan bin Sahibudin, Parjo bin Asing'an, Ondi bin Toing, Herman, Kulung and Jaya bin Emad, run a small battery storage and recycling shop in Cinangka village, Ciampea, Bogor.

Prosecutor Jamil Zaini said that the defendants had violated Law No. 23/1997 on Environment article 43 (1), and Criminal Code article 55 (1).

The prosecutor acknowledged, however, that the defendants could be let off relatively lightly because they were all fairly young family men and had never broken the law before.

However, upon hearing the prosecutors' charges, the defendants began weeping uncontrollably and asked Presiding Judge Marsudin Nainggolan to minimize the punishment they would have to bear, because they were all the sole breadwinners for their families.

The suspects were brought to court because their business activity, established in 1992, was allegedly responsible for polluting the neighborhood.

In the recycling process, they burn the batteries, and the smoke generated apparently has been affecting other residents' health, particularly children.

In addition, the soil around the recycling site was severely polluted with battery acid.

Despite the evidence of some level of pollution, environmentalist organizations say the case is an example of discriminative law enforcement by the authorities.

Mas Achmad Santosa, a researcher from the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law (ICEL), told The Jakarta Post that while this relatively miniscule case was underway, numerous huge factories were free to pollute the environment with far more damaging consequences.

The office of the State Minister for the Environment has a list of non-compliant companies, but almost none of them were brought to court, he said.

"Most of them (large companies) could actually be charged under the Criminal Code," he said, while adding that the state minister's office tended to accept "negotiated settlements" from the companies.

He said that the industries had a lot of power and were backed up by their respective associations, smoothing the way in having the opportunity to directly negotiate with the minister.