Indictment against Said 'unclear, confusing'

Indictment against Said 'unclear, confusing'

Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Lawyers for former religious affairs minister Said Agil Al
Munawar, who is being tried on corruption charges, have appealed
to the Central Jakarta District Court to acquit their client
because the indictment framed by prosecutors was "unclear and
confusing."

"We appeal to the panel of judges to drop the charges and
acquit our client because the charges laid down against him are
groundless, unclear and confusing," said lawyer Muhmmad Assegaf
during a court hearing here on Friday.

Said has been accused over the alleged misuse of haj funds
between 2001 and 2004, when he was still the minister of
religious affairs, causing the state to suffer some Rp 67 billion
(US$6.7 million) and more than $848,000 in losses. The ministry's
former director general of haj management affairs Taufiq Kamil
and his treasurer are being charged for the same crime. If
convicted they could be imprisoned for life.

The alleged misappropriation of the haj funds includes the
transfer of millions of rupiah to a state auditor to influence
the audit on the ministry's haj pilgrimage management agency, and
the financing of haj trips to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, for several
lawmakers.

According to a presidential decree, the ministry is authorized
to use some of the government profit from arranging haj
pilgrimages for Islamic education, propagation and poverty
alleviation programs and the development of haj facilities.

But Assegaf said that prosecutors of the interdepartmental
anticorruption team, as well as the district court, had no
authority to put Said on trial for his policies as minister of
religious affairs and a member of the Cabinet of the previous
administration of Megawati Soekarnoputri.

"The policies, which were made by our client in his capacity
as religious affairs minister, should be accounted for by the
President who appointed him if they are deemed wrong. The House
of Representatives never questioned the (ex) minister over the
policies. President Megawati had already presented her
government's accountability report to the annual session of the
People's Consultative Assembly," he said, adding that according
to a presidential decree on the Cabinet, the minister is
authorized to make polices related to the haj program.

"Government prosecutors seem less than professional in framing
the indictment because only the President and the House have the
authority to evaluate policies made by ministers. As long as the
President and the House had no objection to the policies, the
interdepartmental anticorruption commission and the Attorney
General's Office are not in the position to evaluate our client's
policy and prosecute him," Assegaf said.

A.W. Adnan, a member of the lawyers team, said there were
inaccuracies in the indictment as some of the expenditure for the
2001 pilgrimage season was the responsibility of his client's
predecessor Muhammad Tolchah Hasan.

"Why is our client's predecessor not being prosecuted," he
said.

The misuse of the haj funds is but one of the corruption cases
being handled by the interdepartmental anticorruption team, which
is assigned to investigate graft cases in government offices and
state enterprises.