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