Deputy chief justice Taufiq denies abusing his power
Deputy chief justice Taufiq denies abusing his power
JAKARTA (JP): Supreme Court Deputy Chief Justice Taufiq has
denied charges by the Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) that he
abused his power by ordering the seizure of money from a state
company to compensate a private company for losses.
Taufiq has challenged the organization to report its
suspicions to the police.
"There was no collusion or corruption. If people suspect that
I abused my power, just report me to the police and let the court
prove it," he said on Wednesday.
He claimed that he had followed all necessary procedures
before issuing a letter dated Jan. 15, 2001 ordering the North
Jakarta District Court to hand over Rp 2.1 billion -- confiscated
from state electricity company PLN -- to PT Enico National
Development.
ICW charged on Friday that Taufiq's issuance of the letter was
illegal, especially since the case was still being processed by
the Supreme Court.
In response to the charge, Taufiq said Supreme Court expert
staffers had studied the case for three months before he issued
the letter.
The North Jakarta District Court in 1999 confiscated Rp 2.1
billion from PLN's accounts after ruling that PT Enico incurred
losses because the Ministry of Mines and Energy canceled a
contract between the private company and PLN.
The ministry canceled the contract on a project at the
hydrothermal electricity plant center in Suralaya, West Java,
because of the company's apparent poor performance.
In 1993, PT Enico sued the ministry at the North Jakarta
District Court, which then ordered the ministry to pay PT Enico
compensation amounting to Rp 719.4 million.
The case was later taken to the Jakarta High Court, which
ruled that the ministry had to make the payment, plus interest,
to the company.
The Supreme Court upheld the district court's verdict.
However, PT Enico was not satisfied. It asked the Supreme
Court to review the case and won. The justices ruled that the
ministry was guilty and thus ordered it to pay the compensation
plus a monthly 3 percent compound interest and a Rp 500,000 fine
per day, starting on May 31, 1993.
Based on the ruling, the district court confiscated Rp 2.1
billion from PLN's accounts.
The money had yet to be given to PT Enico by the North Jakarta
District Court because PLN filed an objection with the district
court regarding the execution.
The district court, and later also the Jakarta High Court,
then ruled that the state power company was not involved in the
case.
PT Enico took the case in 1999 to the Supreme Court, which has
not as yet handed down a verdict.
Taufiq, who took over the post in December last year, said the
case was initially handled by former chief justice Sarwata, who
had issued a decree ordering a stay in the execution against PLN
since the latter was not involved in the case.
"But we believed that the execution should not be halted. In
the letter to the Jakarta High Court, we just gave our point of
view about the case, and that it was all up to the North Jakarta
District Court whether to hand over the money confiscated from
PLN to PT Enico," he said. (bby)