Expert witnesses say Akbar not quilty

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Legal experts called on to testify for corruption defendant Akbar Tandjung told the court here on Monday that the former minister/state secretary could not be tried as the case had not resulted in losses to the state.

Professors of law Lobby Loqman, Bambang Purnomo, Ismail Sunny and Andi Hamzah, who were presented by Akbar's lawyers as expert witnesses, said Akbar should be acquitted, as the Rp 40 billion state funds allegedly misused by the defendant had been returned.

"Corruption cannot be found in this case," Bambang said.

Another defendant, Winfried Simatupang, returned the money after admitting that he had never used it to finance a food-for -the-poor program approved by former president B.J. Habibie for Akbar to implement in 1999. In his testimony at a related trial, Winfried said his move was aimed at protecting Akbar.

Both Andi and Lobby asserted that the ultimate objective in the eradication of corruption was to recover state funds swindled.

"The current legal proceedings in corruption cases have resulted in unrecovered state funds and the escape of suspects," Lobby said.

Andi said he dropped a smuggling case when he was a prosecutor in the 1980s after the suspect returned the assets to the state.

"Prosecutors in the case received a reward from the state in exchange for the recovery of state assets. I bought a house in Cilandak from my share of the reward," Andi told the court.

In his testimony, Ismail said it was Habibie who should be held accountable for the case because he ordered the program that used State Logistics Agency (Bulog) funds.

"The defendant was just executing the order, so the responsibility lay with the president," said Ismail, a constitutional law expert.

Monday's hearing was held at the Meteorology & Geophysics Agency (BMG) building in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta.

Central Jakarta District Court decided to move the venue of the trial because the Jakarta Fairground will be used for a month-long annual festival in connection with the commemoration of Independence Day, on Aug. 17.