Distrust in commercial court

Distrust in commercial court

JAKARTA (JP): Sudjono, deputy chairman of the Indonesian Bar
Association, deplored the increasing preference among Indonesian
bankers to settle disputes with debtors at the high court in
Singapore as lack of nationalism.

However, most lawyers here saw the tendency simply as
creditors' distrust in the seven-month old commercial court in
Jakarta caused by the controversial decisions the court made over
the past few months which appeared to favor mostly debtors.

Sudjono made the comment to Antara over the weekend in
connection with the law suit filed by a consortium of nine
domestic and foreign creditors, led by Hong Kong-registered Bali
International Finance, at the high court in Singapore, against
Bambang Sutrisno, a former shareholder of the now defunct Bank
Surya.

Bali International, a unit of Bank Bali in Jakarta, and the
other creditors sued Sutrisno for the failure of Jakarta-based PT
Surya Supratama Finance, to settle its syndicated debt to the
creditor consortium. Sutrisno acted as the guarantor of Surya
Supratama's debt by pledging his assets as securities to the
syndicated loan.

The high court in Singapore decided in favor of the creditors
late last year and issued an injunction prohibiting Sutrisno and
his wife, Gina Widjaja, from disposing their assets in Singapore.