Cybercrime trial on domain name continues

JAKARTA (JP): Martha Tilaar, director of PT Martina Bertho, the giant producer of Sari Ayu cosmetics, appeared at the Central Jakarta District Court on Thursday in the trial of her former employee who had illegally registered the domain name of the firm's competitor, PT Mustika Ratu.

Martha, 64, admitted that she hired the defendant, Tjandra Sugiono, who was the son-in-law of her sibling, as a general manager for the international market from September 1999 to June 2000.

Prosecutor Suhardi had earlier charged Tjandra, 32, with practicing unfair business competition by registering the domain name in the United States sometime in October 1999.

But Martha claimed she did not know that Tjandra registered the domain name "Mustika Ratu.com" until the case was exposed by the media late last year.

"I have directors and Tjandra reported to them, not directly to me," she said.

Asked by the prosecutor whether her company or PT Mustika Ratu suffered losses due to the defendant's deed, Martha said: No.

"I don't think that Mustika Ratu suffered any losses because, based on my experience as a website owner, there are hardly any orders through the Internet," she said.

Martha, who was accompanied by her husband HR Tilaar and her two lawyers Hotma Sitompoel and Ruhut Sitompul, said that after she knew that Tjandra had registered the domain name, she ordered him to return it to the (legitimate) owner. (04)