Court refuses to hear Golkar treasurers' testimony

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The efforts of former State Logistic Agency (Bulog) chief Rahardi Ramelan's lawyers to discover the whereabouts of Rp 40 billion of Bulog nonbudgetary funds that was misappropriated proved futile after the South Jakarta District Court refused to hear the testimonies of one Golkar Party treasurer and two of his deputies.

"There is no correlation and no relevance between the request and the indictment. Therefore we must reject it," presiding judge Lalu Mariyun said in response to a request to hear their testimonies.

On June 18, lawyer Trimoelja D. Soerjadi asked the court to present Fadel Muhammad, Mohammad S. Hidayat and Irish Indira Murti to testify in the hearing of Rahardi, who is accused of misusing Rp 62.9 billion (about US$ 7.27 million) of Bulog nonbudgetary funds in 1999.

The lawyer believed that the three could explain how Rp 40 billion of the funds where spent. The amount was obtained by Akbar Tandjung, the Golkar leader who was state secretary at the time in question. Akbar said that the money was used for charity projects, but many believed that it was spent to finance the 1999 electoral campaign of former president BJ Habibie, who eventually lost his seat.

Akbar, who is also the House of Representatives speaker, is being tried separately at the Central Jakarta District Court.

Out of the Rp 62.9 billion, some Rp 10 billion went to former minister of defense Gen. (ret) Wiranto, and the rest was used for various purposes, including for the presidential guards, according to the indictment.

Rahardi's lawyers alleged that Akbar received checks amounting to Rp 40 billion from former deputy chairman of Bulog's finance division Ahmad Ruskandar.

The checks were apparently later handed to Fadel, Hidayat and Irish.

Fadel, who is also a businessman, is presently the governor of Gorontalo province in Sulawesi.

Lalu is one of the judges who acquitted Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra and businessman Ricardo Gelael in September 1999 of corruption in the high-profile Bulog land scam deal that caused the state Rp 95.4 billion in losses.

On Tuesday, Lalu also rejected the request of the lawyers to hear the testimonies of several lawyers and Golkar members who reportedly attempted to cover up Akbar's involvement during a meeting with Rahardi at the Grand Mahakam Hotel last year.

Lawyer Trimoelja regretted the rejection, saying that the lawyers and the judges had different opinions about "seeking the material truth" in the case.

However, he has yet to decide whether to report the case to the police for further investigation.

Earlier in the day, former expert staff member to Bulog chief Sri Mandowo testified that he had advised Rahardi through deputy chief of the finance department Ahmad Ruskandar to include Bulog's nonbudgetary funds on its budgetary fund balance sheet to avoid abuse.

Rahardi, however, rejected his statement, saying he had never received the advice.