Ex-minister takes stand in Goro case
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)