Court yet to notify Pande's lawyers about prosecutors' appeal

JAKARTA (JP): The South Jakarta District Court has yet to notify Pande Nasorahona Lubis' team of defense lawyers about an appeal by prosecutors against a Nov. 23, 2000 court ruling which acquitted Pande of all charges in the Rp 546 billion (US$57.4 million) Bank Bali scandal, an official said on Wednesday.

"The panel of judges have yet to hand over the dossiers to the court's criminal section," M. Yusuf, the court's chief clerk for criminal cases told The Jakarta Post at his office.

Yusuf said the court should have first notified Pande's lawyers about the prosecutors' statement of appeal immediately after chief prosecutor Tarwo Hadi Sadjuri filed the appeal with the South Jakarta District Court on Dec. 15, 2000.

He said the court would then give 14 days to Pande's lawyers to prepare their counterstatement against the prosecutors' appeal before the prosecutors' appeal would be forwarded to the Supreme Court.

"However, if Pande's lawyers do not submit their counterstatement within 14 days, the court will submit the prosecutors' appeal on its own to the Supreme Court," Yusuf said.

Asfifuddin, coordinator of Pande's defense team, said he had yet to receive the court notice of the prosecutors' appeal against the Pande Lubis verdict.

"We have not prepared our counterstatement because the court has yet to inform us about the prosecutors' appeal," Asfifuddin told the Post by phone.

Prosecutor Tarwo earlier said that the Nov. 23 court ruling which acquitted Pande of all graft charges did not mean that Pande was automatically a free man.

In the 54-page appeal statement, dated Dec. 4, Tarwo said the grounds for the appeal were that the South Jakarta District Court judges had misinterpreted the indictment the prosecutors had laid against the defendant.

He compared the case against Djoko S. Tjandra, an executive of factoring firm PT Era Giat Prima, who had also been acquitted of similar graft charges in the Bank Bali scandal, and the one against Pande to a football match.

"Pande is the player who scores a goal, while Djoko is only standing beside the pitch acting as the coach," Tarwo said last week.

"So the cases against Djoko and Pande cannot be generalized. That's why Pande cannot be freed from the charges," he said.

Djoko was acquitted of all charges by the same district court last August.

Earlier, Tarwo asked the district court to sentence Pande, a former deputy chairman of the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA), to four years in prison for his alleged role in the scandal.

Tarwo said Pande, 56, should be held responsible for the disbursement of Rp 904 billion of IBRA's funds to Bank Bali, which was a violation of banking procedures.

He accused Pande of violating the 1971 Corruption Law, specifically Article 1 on enriching oneself at the expense of the state. He also accused the defendant of conspiring with others to commit a crime. (01)