Attorney general criticized for failing to recover state assets
Attorney general criticized for failing to recover state assets
Abdul Khalik, Jakarta
Observers claimed on Friday that bribery and poor coordination
between law enforcers were behind the low recovery rate of state
assets in corruption cases prosecuted by the Attorney General's
Office.
Legal expert Pradjoto said the low rate of recovery reflected
the failure of the office to eradicate corruption in the country
due to its lack of commitment to saving state assets.
"I don't believe that they can't confiscate corruptors' assets
because it is easy to do so if they have a strong commitment. I
suspect that these corruptors bribed the prosecutors," Pradjoto
told The Jakarta Post.
A press release issued by the Attorney General's Office on
Wednesday revealed that during a two-year period, the office
brought to court some 1,200 cases that have caused Rp 22 trillion
(US$2.35 billion) in state losses, but had managed to recover
only Rp 1.2 billion.
Pradjoto said the corruptors controlled huge amounts of assets
or cash that could be used to bribe state officials.
"That's why I suggest that the prosecutors confiscate the
corruptors' assets first before bringing them to court. In that
way, these corruptors won't be able to do anything," said
Pradjoto.
Pradjoto, who is a legal consultant of BNI, said the case
involving Rp 1.7 trillion in the bank's assets set a precedent
for all prime suspects, who were able to avoid prosecution
because they still owned such a huge amount of money.
He said with Rp 300 billion to Rp 400 billion on hand they
could bribe any state official to enable them to escape
prosecution.
Another legal expert Yunus Husein of the Financial
Transactions and Report Analysis Center (PPATK) said it was
difficult for the prosecutors to reclaim state assets because
they could not enforce Law No. 25/2003 on money laundering.
"In corruption cases, only the police can use the law on money
laundering while the prosecutors can only apply the law on
corruption. The Money Laundering Law will enable law enforcers to
confiscate assets or freeze account without a court order or
permission from Bank Indonesia," Yunus told the Post.
He also said the law applied a reversed burden of the proof,
which requires suspects of corruption to prove that all of their
assets were generated legally.
Yunus said it would be impossible to confiscate assets from
suspects in corruption cases without good understanding and
cooperation among the police, prosecutors and judges.
"All of these law enforcers can discuss how to save the state
assets. If they think that it is best for the state that they
confiscate the assets first before the trial then they can do so
without violating the law," he said.
Responding the office's claim that they were successful in
bringing all the suspects of corruption to court, both Pradjoto
and Yunus agreed that it was useless to punish them without
recovering the assets.