Graft trial confuses prosecutors and media
Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Many unexpected things can happen in Indonesia's notorious courtrooms and it is not just controversial verdicts that run contrary to people's sense of justice.
On Tuesday, prosecutors presented a sentence recommendation for a corruption case involving defendants Hendra Rahardja, Eko Edi Putranto and Sherny Konjongian formerly with the now-defunct Bank BHS.
They asked the Central Jakarta District Court to give Hendra a life sentence, and 20 years each for Edi and Sherny. The prosecutors also demanded the defendants to pay Rp 1.95 trillion (US$195 million) in compensation.
The defendants, all of whom are on the lam, are being tried in absentia for misappropriating Bank Indonesia Liquidity Credit funds from 1993 to 1997 and the Bank Indonesia Liquidity Support money from 1997 to 1999.
However, much to the surprise of many activists, the recommendation did not state clearly the total amount of money the defendants had misused.
At one point, the prosecutors said the state had suffered Rp 2.6 trillion in losses, and later they said the losses amounted to Rp 1.95 trillion. In the same document, they said the defendants had caused the state losses of Rp 305 billion and US$2.304 million.
As a result, many trial observers were confused. Many reporters wrote that the total state losses amounted to Rp 2.6 trillion, while the rest reported the Rp 1.95 trillion figure. There was also a newspaper report that the total of the losses was Rp 3.2 trillion as the reporter apparently added some of the figures together after converting the dollars.
When prosecutors were asked about the confusing figures, one of them, Andi Rahman Asbar, said, "it has been stated in the recommendation."
The incident seemed to confirm the allegation that legal people here understand little about banking and economics.
In 2000 the Attorney General's Office said it would send 80 suspects to court for misusing the Bank Indonesia Liquidity Support Fund (BLBI). But to date, only 12 people have been tried.
Some doubt law enforcers' capability to address the problems due to their limited knowledge of the banking system and its regulations.
The State Audit Agency revealed in 1999 that 95 percent of the Rp 144.5 billion Bank Indonesia Liquidity Support extended to 48 private banks had been misused.