Businessman imprisoned for importing waste
Businessman imprisoned for importing waste
JAKARTA (JP): The North Jakarta district court sentenced a
businessman to 15 months in jail yesterday for illegally
importing waste into Indonesia.
The court also fined Herdy Wetan, Director of PT Duta Dynasty,
Rp 5 million (US$2,300), or six months in jail in default, for
smuggling 24.38 kilograms of plastic waste from Hong Kong.
Herdy said he would appeal.
The team of judges said Herdy was guilty of importing a
certain type of plastic waste which is forbidden under a 1992
decree issued by the ministry of trade.
Herdy, 40, was also found guilty of falsifying documents. He
claimed to have imported 750 bags of reground vinyl pallet -- a
raw material used in plastics -- weighing 17,250 kilograms, when
the containers were actually carrying plastic scraps packed into
1,060 bags weighing a total of 24.38 kilograms.
The accusations were dismissed by Herdy, who said in his
defense statement that he was unaware of the actual contents of
the containers and merely believed what was written on the import
documents. He also said that he had all the necessary legal
requirements.
Government prosecutor I Made Sudama initially pressed for an
18-month sentence and fines.
Sudama told reporters that the verdict was favorable to
scavengers who tend to suffer at the hands of imported waste.
"Presently the case is for the benefit of social concerns. No
environmental factors have been considered because expert
witnesses from the Environmental Impact Management Agency
(Bapedal) and the ministries of industry and of trade have
asserted said that there were no toxins in the plastic waste," he
told reporters.
The reading of the verdict was attended yesterday by
environmental activists, some 30 scavengers from the Society of
Scavengers, a number of people from the Legal Aid Foundation and
from the Jakarta Social Institute.
According to the scavenger's leader Gondo, imported waste,
which is cheaper because it goes directly from the port to
industries which reuse it, greatly reduces the daily earnings of
scavengers.
"Industries are reluctant to buy from us with the presence of
imports, so we have to cut down our price from about Rp 250 per
kilogram of garbage to around Rp 50," he told The Jakarta Post.
On average a scavenger can collect 25 to 30 kg of garbage
daily.
The container belonging to PT Duta is only one of the 14
others containing waste, whose presence at the Tanjung Priok port
and caused protests from environmental activists early last year.
Azas Tigor from the Jakarta Social Institute said the other
containers have mysteriously disappeared and that no one knows of
their whereabouts. (pwn)