Court tells Lippo, critic to make peace
Court tells Lippo, critic to make peace
Zakki Hakim, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
A court has urged a commissioner of Bank Lippo and noted
analyst Lin Che Wei to reach an out-of-court settlement within
one week in their dispute over a number of articles written by
Lin on misleading financial reports filed by Lippo.
Presiding judge Mohammad Saleh, in the first hearing of the
case in the Central Jakarta District Court, said both parties
should consider reaching an out-of-court settlement as the legal
process could turn out to be long and exhausting.
However both sides showed no sign that they would abide by the
judge's suggestion.
"Our client is open to an out-of-court settlement but until
this moment we have not received a proposal from the accused (Lin
Che Wei)," said Chalid Luis Heyder of Hutabarat, Halim &
Partners, the law firm representing Lippo commissioner Rudi Toha
Bachrie.
"There won't be any settlement proposal from us," Lin said
during the court session.
In several articles published in Kompas in mid-February, Lin
warned the public to be careful of buying Lippo stock, saying he
suspected share-price manipulation by Lippo management. He also
questioned the actions being taken by the authorities to prevent
or stop such alleged manipulation.
Lin said Lippo management had systematically pushed down the
price of Lippo stock so that the government, as the owner of a 59
percent stake in the bank, would have its shareholding diluted.
This was designed to pave the way for the former owners of the
bank, Mochtar Riyadi's family, who now own 30 percent of Lippo,
to regain control.
In 1999, the government injected about Rp 6 trillion in
bailout funds into the bank, which gave it a 60 percent stake in
Lippo.
On Feb. 21, Rudi filed a defamation lawsuit against Lin.
According to court documents made available to The Jakarta
Post, Rudi is demanding Rp 103 billion (US$11.59 million) in
compensation, saying Lin's articles had damaged his reputation
and credibility. Also, he said the articles caused Lippo to
suffer financial losses as it resulted in a decrease in Lippo's
share price and forced Lippo to spend money to clarify the
situation to various parties, including the government,
investors, and the public, and to hire lawyers.
Lawyer Frans Hendra Winarta, who is representing Lin, said his
client could not be accused of defamation, because as an
independent analyst he was writing for the public who had a right
to know both "good and bad" information.
Moreover, he said, in his article Lin did not name any
culprits behind the alleged Lippo share price manipulation.
"My client will not correct his article, will not apologize
and will not stop writing," Frans said.