Court refuses to hear Golkar treasurers' testimony

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.