Executive tried for not insuring employees

JAKARTA (JP): Central Jakarta Court indicted an executive of a worker placement agency yesterday for failing to insure his employees and illegally hiring a foreign worker.

Prosecutor Baginda Lumbangaol demanded defendant Abdul Muin M. Aliun, president of PT Almas Corporation, be sentenced to three months in jail with probation of six months.

Baginda said, based on witnesses' testimonies and the defendant's statement, Muin had been proved guilty of not insuring his 23 employees in the state-run Jamsostek worker insurance scheme as required by the law.

"The defendant was guilty of violating Article 29 of Law No. 3/1992 on employee insurance," he said.

He said the defendant also admitted to having illegally employed an Egyptian man, identified as Sahid Muhamad Mustofa, to teach Arabic and Arabic culture to candidate workers last year before the workers were sent to Saudi Arabia.

Presiding judge Asmar Ismail adjourned the trial until next week to give Muin time to prepare his plea.

The defendant has refused to be accompanied by lawyers since the beginning of the trial.

Earlier on Wednesday, Muin's brother, Abdul Malik M. Aliun, a commissioner of the same company, was also indicted in the same courtroom for slandering the director general of manpower placement and development of the manpower ministry.

Malik reportedly made remarks which were then published by local media that the high-ranking official had used Rp 700 million (US$233,333) belonging to the Association of Worker Placement Companies (APJATI).

Malik, who is the advisory chairman of APJATI, also said that about 60 percent of Rp 3 billion of APJATI's fund was used by officials of the ministry.

The defendant was charged under Article 310 of the Criminal Code, if proved guilty he could face a maximum punishment of nine months or a fine of Rp 4,500. (jun)