Ex-minister takes stand in Goro case

JAKARTA (JP): Former minister of cooperatives and small enterprises Subiakto Tjakrawerdaya testified at the South Jakarta District Court on Wednesday that he agreed to a proposed cooperation between the nation's cooperatives and wholesaler PT Goro Batara Sakti.

"It was simply due to the fact that only Goro offered us the opportunity to participate in the wholesale business. We (the cooperatives) long wanted to enter the wholesale business," Subiakto said in the trial of Goro's former president Ricardo Gelael.

He said the relationship between the cooperatives, which were under his ministry's supervision, and Goro ran well.

But he denied knowing about a land deal between PT Goro Batara Sakti and the State Logistics Agency (Bulog).

Also charged were Goro's former president commissioner Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra and Bulog's former chief Beddu Amang.

The prosecutor said the three defendants caused the state Rp 95 billion losses through the land deal made between Goro and Bulog.

The prosecutor said Goro illegally exchanged Bulog's warehousing complex in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta, with a piece of land in Marunda in the same mayoralty.

Beddu's indictment was thrown out of court on a legal technicality. The prosecutor failed to gain President B.J. Habibie's approval for the indictment, which was required because Beddu remains a legislator.

Last week, two witnesses -- Ken Laksono, former finance director of wholesale firm PT Goro Batara Sakti, and businessman Hokiarto -- told the same court that the appropriation of a 71- hectare plot of land in Marunda, North Jakarta, had not yet been completed.

"The land appropriation in Marunda was still being processed when the deal between Goro and the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) to exchange land was signed in 1997," Laksono, who was presented by the prosecutors to testify against defendant Tommy, said.

Tommy, Beddu and Ricardo were charged under Article 1 (1a) of Corruption Law No. 3/1971 which carries a maximum punishment of life imprisonment and a Rp 30 million fine.(jun)