'Halt the case against Sjahril'

'Halt the case against Sjahril'

JAKARTA (JP): A lawyer representing suspended Bank Indonesia
governor Sjahril Sabirin in the Bank Bali scandal said on Friday
that prosecution should be halted since other defendants in the
case had been declared not guilty by a district court.

Mohamad Assegaf said the team of lawyers had sent a letter to
Attorney General Marzuki Darusman, demanding that Sjahril be
dismissed as he was not guilty and the charges were of a
political nature.

"We sent the request after our first letter, which was sent on
Oct. 19, was apparently ignored by the attorney general. We asked
for his attention in stopping the prosecution," he told The
Jakarta Post by phone on Friday afternoon.

Assegaf argued that based on the South Jakarta District Court
verdicts, which acquitted businessman Djoko Tjandra and former
deputy chairman of the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency
(IBRA) Pande Lubis, the prosecutors had no strong legal grounds
to prosecute Sjahril.

"Sjahril, as the central bank governor, only endorsed what was
ordered by IBRA: to reimburse funds to Bank Bali for defaulted
loans. If the case is taken to court, it's only for political
reasons. I remind the attorney general of its impact on our
monetary value if he insists on prosecution," Assegaf said.

Sjahril, who is under house arrest, has been charged with
violating the central bank's prudential policy in reimbursing the
funds without conducting any clarification.

The scandal revolves around the reimbursement of Rp 904
billion in defaulted loans to other banks. Some Rp 546 billion of
the money was then paid to Djoko's PT Era Giat Prima as a
commission for helping Bank Bali recoup the money.

The lawyers tried to release their client from detention and
filed a pretrial lawsuit for arbitrary arrest with the South
Jakarta District Court.

However, Marzuki denied that he received the demands from the
lawyers.

"I never received nor read them. The deputy attorney general
for special crimes probably got them. But if he did, he surely
would have let me know," he told the Post. (bby)