Former BI directors acquitted
Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Jakarta High Court has overturned the verdicts of a lower court which convicted three former directors of Bank Indonesia (BI) for their alleged involvement in the misuse of BI liquidity support (BLBI) funds, which caused the state to suffer Rp 18.164 trillion in losses.
Hasan Basri Passe, the court's spokesman, said Monday that the court had acquitted the convicts following the issuance of the verdicts on their separate appeals in late December.
"BLBI is the government's policy. BI only carried out its mandate," said Hasan, adding that the three cases were heard by three panels of judges all led by Judge Samang Hamidi.
The Central Jakarta District Court convicted last year Paul Soetopo Tjokronegoro, Hendrobudiyanto and Heru Soepraptomo for abusing their power in 1997 by disbursing state funds to private banks.
The court sentenced Paul to two-and-a-half-years in prison and handed down three-year prison terms to Hendrobudiyanto and Heru for authorizing the disbursement of Rp 18.164 trillion in state funds to 45 private banks.
According to the verdicts, the private banks were not entitled to BLBI funds.
The three directors, aged between 63 and 73 years old, were not detained despite their prison sentences.
The Attorney General's Office spokesman Kemas Yahya Rahman said prosecutors would appeal the verdicts to the Supreme Court.
"Of course the prosecutors who handled the cases must challenge the verdicts," he explained.
The BLBI case stemmed from the government's decision to provide liquidity support, amounting to Rp 144.5 trillion, to assist 48 commercial banks in coping with massive runs during the monetary crisis from August 1997 to early 1999.
However, 95 percent of the money was eventually embezzled.
Law enforcers have sent to court dozens of bankers implicated in the misuse of state funds since 2000. The move, however, failed to recoup the state funds, as many defendants were acquitted from all wrongdoings while some fled justice despite the lenient sentences they were handed.
The state suffered its first loss in 2000, when the South Jakarta District Court exonerated Hendrawan Haryono, former deputy director of the now defunct Bank Aspac, of corruption.
Hendrawan was instead found guilty of violating Article 49B of Law No. 7/1992 on banking, and was sentenced to one year in prison and ordered to pay a Rp 500 million fine, despite the fact that the bank had caused Rp 583.4 billion in losses to the state.
Later on, the country witnessed law enforcers' inability to bring justice to BLBI corruptors, such as Samadikun Hartono of the now-defunct Modern Bank and David Nusa Wijaya of now-defunct Bank Servitia, who managed to flee following their convictions.
Samadikun, imprisoned for the misuse of Rp 1.69 trillion in BLBI funds, fled after the Supreme Court annulled the verdict of a lower court, acquitting him of all charges. The whereabouts of David Nusa Wijaya remain unknown, since the West Jakarta District Court sentenced him to one year in prison for the misappropriation of Rp 1.27 trillion in BLBI funds.
In several cases, courts handed down heavy sentences such as the Central Jakarta District Court, which sentenced the late Hendra Rahardja of now-defunct Bank BHS to life imprisonment, as well as Eko Edi Putranto and Sherny Kojongian (also from Bank BHS) to 20 years in prison each for misusing Rp 2.696 trillion in BLBI funds.
The three of them were, however, tried in absentia. Hendra died last year in Australia. However, to date, the government has been unable to claim Hendra's assets.