Ex-BNI officer gets life
Ex-BNI officer gets life
Muninggar Sri Saraswati and Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post,
Jakarta
A legal observer and an anticorruption activist welcomed on
Tuesday the unprecedented life sentence handed down to a former
bank Bank BNI officer, but questioned law enforcers' overall
commitment in solving the Rp 1.7 trillion (US$180 million)
corruption case.
The South Jakarta District Court declared on Monday that Edi
Santoso, former Foreign Customer Relations head of BNI Kebayoran
Baru, was guilty of enriching himself and others by illegally
disbursing Rp 1.7 trillion belonging to the state-owned bank.
Another defendant Koesadiyuwono, former BNI Kebayoran Baru
branch manager, was sentenced to 16 years in prison on Monday for
failing to prevent the scandal. He was also ordered to pay a fine
Rp 500 million or serve an additional six months in prison.
Presiding judge Soedarto instructed state prosecutors to
immediately detain the convicts as the trial adjourned. Lawyers
of the two convicts appealed the verdict.
"The verdicts are in accordance with the financial damage
suffered by the state, but we also know that many more people
were involved in the scandal, some of whom have not yet been
brought to justice," Luhut MP Pangaribuan said on Tuesday.
The scam began when officers from the BNI Kebayoran Baru
branch in South Jakarta approved export loans to eight
subsidiaries of the Gramarindo and Petindo Groups with letters of
credit issued by banks in Kenya, Switzerland and the Cook Islands
as collateral.
The letters of credit turned out to be fake, causing the state
bank to suffer losses worth Rp 1.7 trillion.
Police named 17 suspects from BNI, Gramarindo and Petindo, but
only seven, including Edi and Koesadiyuwono, have been put on
trial.
Prime suspect Maria Pauline Lumowa managed to flee the
country, while another person originally thought to be a key
player, Adrian Waworuntu, was released due to lack of evidence.
Luhut warned that if both the National Police and the Attorney
General's Office (AGO) failed to bring to justice other suspects,
the long sentences handed down to Edi and Koesadiyuwono would not
be adequate as a deterrent against corruption in the country.
"Instead, it would only confirm allegations of selective law
enforcement, meaning not all people are treated equally before
the law," Luhut, who is also a noted lawyer, told The Jakarta
Post.
Deputy chairman of Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) Lucky
Djani shared Luhut's opinion and expressed his dismay over the
fact that law enforcers would boast about their success in
sending some BNI corruptors to jail while releasing others
thought to have a role.
"The police and prosecutors must prove that these two convicts
have not been made the scapegoats to save the other suspects," he
said.
Lucky said that heavy sentences against a few corruptors in
the BNI case would have a minimal impact in the drive against
rampant corruption.
The verdicts, he said, were not a part of a systematic effort
to stamp out corruption, given the fact that police have released
some of the suspects without clear explanations and that the main
suspect remains free in Singapore.
"We will never know whether the verdicts were purely based on
legal arguments of the judges or not. But, it's a rare case,
similar to the convictions of a number of councillors in West
Sumatra," said Lucky, referring to some 40 legislature members
who were found guilty of corruption.