C. Jakarta Court rules to try Sjahrizal and Bambang
JAKARTA (JP): The Central Jakarta District Court rejected yesterday the objections by lawyers defending two former Bank Bapindo directors relating to the Rp 1.3 trillion (US$620 million) loan scandal at the state-owned bank.
In two separate hearings, the court decided that the government prosecutors have cases against both Sjahrizal and Bambang Kuntjoro.
"The objections raised by the defendant's lawyers are materials to be contested at the trial," Judge Sihol Sitompul, who presided at Sjahrizal's trial, said. "The prosecutors' charges are valid."
Judge Partoso, who is presiding over the trial of Bambang Kuntjoro in a separate courtroom, gave a similar reason in his ruling.
Both trials were adjourned until Monday at which time witness testimony will begin.
The lawyers defending Sjahrizal and Bambang had earlier appealed to the court to acquit their clients of corruption charges, saying that the government has already convicted Maman Suparman, former deputy manager of Bapindo's Jakarta branch, as the main culprit.
Maman is now serving a nine-year jail term. Businessman Eddy Tansil, to whom the Bapindo loans were extended, was sentenced to 17 years in jail and fined Rp 500 billion ($238 million).
The lawyers in almost identical statements argued that their clients could not be tried for the huge losses inflicted on the bank given that they had not even been questioned by the bank's shareholders, in this case the government.
The lawyers claimed the prosecutors' charges were inconsistent and ambiguous and therefore asked the court to reject the charges.
Sjahrizal, 59, and Bambang, 53, have retained the services of top lawyers Harjono Tjitrosoebono and Hotma Sitompoel, respectively, to defend them at their trials.
Harjono accepted the judge's ruling but Hotma immediately appealed to the High Court to overrule the decision.
Sjahrizal and Bambang are being held responsible, individually or collectively, with other bank directors, for allowing the debacle that almost bankrupted the bank. Two other former directors, Subekti Ismaun and Towil Heryoto, are also being tried on similar charges.
Judge Sitompul overruled the lawyers' argument that there had been no criminal wrongdoing by the directors and that at the most, they have committed administrative or civil wrongs because Bapindo is a limited company.
The judge said under the country's law, a bank's director can be tried for criminal wrongdoing.
Partoso also gave similar reasoning in the trial of Bambang.
Meanwhile, the trial of Subekti Ismaun at the South Jakarta District Court proceeded yesterday with testimony from five Bapindo staffers: Joseph Sukardi, Oto Shampo, Johannes Djijo, Tursilo Hadi and Pratikno. (02)