Appeal statement on Pande signed

JAKARTA (JP): Prosecutor Tarwo Hadi Sadjuri signed on Monday an appeal against a Nov. 23 court ruling which acquitted Pande Nasorahona Lubis from all graft charges in the Rp 546 billion (US$57 million) Bank Bali scandal.

Tarwo said the grounds to file the appeal were that the South Jakarta District Court judges had misinterpreted the indictment the prosecutors had made against the defendant.

"The judges should have treated the indictment against Djoko S. Tjandra (an executive of PT Era Giat Prima) different from the one against Pande," he said at the district court.

He compared the case against Djoko and the one against Pande as a football game.

"Pande is a football player who scores a goal, while Djoko is only standing outside the football field, as a coach," he said.

"So the cases against Djoko and Pande cannot be generalized. That's why Pande cannot be freed from the charges," he said.

The court acquitted Pande from all corruption charges because none of the legal arguments in the prosecutors' indictment could prove the defendant had violated the Anticorruption Law.

Earlier, Tarwo asked the district court to sentence Pande, a former deputy chairman of the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA), to four years in prison for his role in the Bank Bali scandal.

Tarwo said Pande, 56, should be held responsible for the disbursement of Rp 904 billion of IBRA's funds to Bank Bali, which was a violation of banking procedures.

Tarwo accused Pande of violating the 1971 Corruption Law, specifically Article 1 on enriching oneself at the expense of the state. He also accused the defendant of conspiring with others to commit a crime.

Meanwhile Djoko, who has also been implicated in the scandal, was acquitted from all charges by the same district court in August. (01)